Sunken Treasure Lost Worlds

His knowledge can make them all rich... or get them killed.

From the depths of the Atlantic off Cape Canaveral Florida, searching for sunken Spanish treasure, to the Andes mountains of Ecuador chasing the legend of a lost golden library, Dr. Colten X. Burnett and the Risky Business team are on a quixotic adventure.

While trying to make an honest, well sort of honest living, searching for remnants of the lost 1715 fleet, Risky Business Ltd. becomes entangled in a mystery that covers two continents and may rewrite history.

The lure of uncovering a lost civilization, as well as the secrets it holds, motivates the team on their dangerous journey into a cosmological unknown.

Sunken Treasure: Lost Worlds (Adventure/Mystery/Action)

By Hep Aldridge

Budy Media

ISBN 978-1083049780

Price $15.99 (Paperback)

Price $4.99 (Kindle)

308 Pages

Rating 5-Stars

“Adrenalin Pumping Excitement”

Risky Business, LTD is a company formed by a group of friends seeking adventure. They are interested in a fleet of ships that went down in 1715, and may contain sunken treasure. Dr. Colton X Burnett leads the team, but all are well trained and tough. From the start, the story kicks off with excitement, and never lets up. The trail will lead them to two continents, and they may encounter more than they bargained for in their search for a lost civilization.

I was given a copy of the book for an honest review. Readers will find this story filled with thrilling adventure and lots of gunfights and explosions. The adrenalin pumping excitement will keep you turning the pages. Highly recommended.

Tom Johnson

Author of THE MAN IN THE BLACK FEDORA

Post Facto

When Clara Sue Buchanan gave up big-city journalism to buy her Southern hometown newspaper, she was determined to ferret out the truth in whatever story that came along. What came were high school football games, the locals' catch of the day, and family reunions. Until a string of paranormal sightings turns the monotony upside down. Then millions of dollars in federal funds are on the horizon, but they threaten to ignite a blood feud. A dog is the victim of a ritualistic killing. A drug stash shows up in the truck of a dead prison guard. Things are getting a lot more interesting. Especially when a mysterious trunk appears from an era past, promising to rip open a decades-old case of unexpected death and tragic suicide. Suddenly, all of Clara Sue's big-city reporter skills are in play as she tries to crack the code of small-town corruption, venality, and wanton murder. Before she's the next victim.

Post Facto (Mystery)

By Darryl Wimberley

The Permanent Press www.thepermanentpress.com

ISBN #978-1579625559

Price $19.46 (Hardback)

Price $9.99 (Kindle)

248 Pages

Rating 4-Stars

Clara Sue Buchanan, a big city reporter, has returned to her home in Florida. She takes over the local newspaper, and a local mystery. The Lambs, a local family is trying to cheat Butch out of his inheritance. Butch is a little slow witted and might lose everything without help. Clara teams with her cousin, the local sheriff to investigate strange cases that seem supernatural. What’s going on, and could she end up the next victim?

The publisher sent me a copy of the book for an honest review. This was a fun story, and a slight play on the big city cop retiring to Florida to become involved in a murder case. But this time it’s a journalist and she’s female. But everything else is in place. It is a neat plot, and has good characterization, so is already ahead of those retired cops moving to Florida plots, and well worth the read. Highly recommended.

Tom Johnson

Author of INVITATION TO MURDER

Fistful Of Rain

FISTFUL OF RAIN is the sequel to 2017's South California Purples. Set in 1975, it is the story of a nation, a rural county, and a small town coming to terms with turbulent change. The theft of a rancher's livestock ends in an assault that escalates into arson, and the murders of nearly a dozen people. Residents of a "hippie" commune are accused of having committed the acts that have led the small county to the brink of a range war, and of feeding the tensions between generations. Sheriff Ty Dawson, a cattle rancher himself, finds himself at the center of a battle between town residents and the "hippies" who appear to be threatening their way of life, a struggle that leads both sides to violence.

Fistful of Rain (Mystery)

By Baron R. Birtcher

The Permanent Press www.thepermanentpress.com

ISBN #978-1579625184

Price $29.95 (Hardback)

Price $9.99 (Kindle)

288 Pages

Rating 4-Stars

It’s 1975 and America has just gone through the sex, drugs, and Rock & Roll of the 1960s and saw the end of the Vietnam War. There are small crimes of livestock theft in the area, which quickly turns into arson and then murder. A mysterious commune of hippies living in the area is the immediate suspect. The violence escalates putting Sheriff Ty Dawson in the middle of a powder keg that could explode at any moment.

This is a nice follow-up to the author’s South California Purples, but I have to admit that his favorite book for me remains Hard Latitudes. However, the author’s writing style kept me turning the pages in this latest book. Highly recommended.

Tom Johnson

Author of THE MAN IN THE BLACK FEDORA

The Kill Circle

When retired senior CIA analyst Rico Perris plunges off a cliff in his vintage Porsche while speeding through the mountains of Colorado late one snowy night, the local sheriff rules it an accident. CIA officials, however, suspect otherwise. Their suspicions are soon heightened after two other former intelligence analysts turn up dead under questionable circumstances. All three victims were once assigned to the same top-secret project an internal review of the CIA's long-rumored involvement in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Now, with a Congressional mandate about to go into effect compelling the CIA to release long-secret files relating to the assassination, there is growing concern that a shrewd and ruthless killer is on the loose, one who will stop at nothing to prevent the public from discovering the truth of what happened that tragic day in Dallas in November, 1963.

Veteran pilot, aspiring Buddhist and ex-government assassin Cordell Logan has little interest in helping his former comrade-in-arms, Buzz, who still works in the intelligence community, investigate what looks increasingly like a vexing conspiracy. Content to operate his small civilian flight school in the swanky seaside resort of Rancho Bonita, California, Logan would just as soon be left alone that is, until Buzz introduces him to Layne Sterling, a brilliant and beautiful CIA agent assigned to the case. Logan is instantly drawn to her. Working together while pretending to ignore their simmering mutual attraction, they soon find themselves caught up in a high-stakes, high-altitude cat-and-mouse game, one that in the end could destroy them both.

Fast-paced, brimming with action and humor, The Kill Circle is a page-turner of the first order, the sixth offering in a series of mystery-thrillers that has earned Cordell Logan and author David Freed a legion of loyal readers and critics alike.

The Kill Circle (Mystery)

By David Freed

The Permanent Press www.permanentpress.com

ISBN #978-1579625115

304 Pages

Price $29.95 (Hardback)

Price $8.49 (Kindle)

Rating 4-Stars

“Another Good Entry”

The publisher sent me a copy of the book for an honest review. Cordell Logan is drawn into another investigation connected to the Kennedy assassination. He refuses to help look into a case involving the mysterious deaths of several CIA agents, but is forced in by his friend, Buzz. Assisting the beautiful CIA agent, Layne Sterling the case takes them to Colorado for the answers.

I’ve followed the Cordell Logan series from the first novel on, and have always enjoyed the stories, and this latest entry is no exception. Highly recommended.

Tom Johnson

Author of THE MAN IN THE BLACK FEDORA

Co-Evolution

Another intelligent species existed on Earth long before human kind. They had a taste for human flesh and slaughtered humans by the thousands. Human kind advanced, built great cities, and learned how to defend themselves. A stalemate ensued, and a truce was negotiated, with one human a week offered as food. What better humans to offer than criminals?
Detective Victor Pargner of the Capital Crimes Division of the Wetlands City Police Department solves serious crimes and gets the culprit sentenced to a “feeding.” The truce is working out until people begin to disappear. What could be causing those disappearances? Is the other species violating the truce?

Co-Evolution (SF/Mystery/Horror)

By Arthur Weissmann

Independent Publishing Platform

ASIN # B07B9QJFTD

491 Pages

Price $2.99 (Kindle)

Rating 4-Stars

Intelligent reptiles co-exist with humans: The Reptecti adult species is scaly and stands upright at about eight feet tall weighing approximately five hundred pounds; they have been around for sixty-six million years. They share this alternate universe with the human race in a treaty system that allows both species to exist. To prevent war and hunting each other for food or hatred, the humans provide one person a week as food for the reptecti; these are the human criminal element.

Now something is happening. Humans are disappearing, and naturally the reptecti are suspected. The police must figure out what is going on or the treaty could shatter.

There is a good twist at the end, and I liked this novel better than the author’s first book, however my main complaint is with the author’s writing style; it doesn’t flow smoothly. It needs to be tightened, and a good editor could do that for the author. There is too much repeated that could be eliminated to make the narrative flow more easily. The plot and characters are unique, and readers will find the story pulls them in from the beginning. Highly recommended.

Tom Johnson

Author of WORLDS OF TOMORROW

The Case of The Missing Bubble Gum Card

The Case of The Missing Bubble Gum Card (Mystery)

By R. Weir

Independent Publishing Platform

ASIN #B00JGEZNSU

Price $ Free

28 Pages

Rating 5-Stars

Returning to his office, Private Detective Jarvis Mann finds a young man, 16-year-old Dennis Gash waiting on the steps for him. While playing after church, he had showed several of his friends his valuable bubble gum sports card, then stuck it in his back pocket and forgot about it. Upon reaching home he found the card was missing. Valued at over twelve hundred dollars, he doesn’t want to tell his father about its loss, and asks the detective to help him find.

This was an easy investigation, and Jarvis soon finds the card in a Specialty Shop, and discovers who sold it, so the case is closed, but how to handle the case is another matter.

The Jarvis Mann detective series is new, and easy reads. The author is a good writer, and relies on words instead of a lot of sew and profanity, yet offers good plots and characters, with a good mystery that will keep you interested. It could have used a better cover, however. Highly recommended.

Tom Johnson

Author of THE MAN IN THE BLACK FEDORA