The Armageddon Virus

The Armageddon Virus is the third installment to his action-packed, thriller series. Travis Weld and Chesney Barrett’s tandem is taken to a whole new level where Chesney tries to stop the alleged illegal transaction involving a potentially deadly virus. Let’s take a walk to memory lane – viruses were one of the major causes of death of our ancestors. A single virus can damage an entire community; if there’s no known cure. Weld in a pursuit of terrorists, intercepted a phone message from an anonymous sender trying to sell a deadly virus to a weapon dealer. This leaves them with an intense pursuit of who this person is and what this deadly virus being sold is. Chesney, who has become Weld’s first contact in missions like this, found herself leading towards a virology research company. As she tries to explore virology in this industry; she has noted wary deaths, and met various virologists. During her stay, her keen self found out about the long time feud going on inside the premises, which she purported to be the key in resolving the case. The closer she gets to the answers, the closer she is to danger. Imagine a single virus that can endanger not only one or two lives, but millions. Find out if this tandem can stop destruction to mankind or will they succumb to this virus.

The Armageddon Virus (Thriller)

By Robert W. Gallant

Independent Publishing Platform

ISBN #978-0578208114

Price $11.99 (Paperback)

Price $3.99 (Kindle)

322 Pages

Rating 4-Stars

“A Page Turner”

Travis Weld brings Chesney Barrett in on another case, this time involving the illegal sale of a deadly virus. Weld commands a team of special agents who track down and kill terrorists and drug dealers.  His motto is no criminal walks away alive. A few years in the past there was a hotel in Houston, Texas that experienced a mysterious virus that left 27 people dead out of over 400 who were at the hotel. The low death rate did not send any signals up, but it was investigated. Weld hears coded messages coming through an illegal weapons dealer that a deadly Armageddon virus is for sale, and when two of the investigators of the hotel virus are murdered, he wants someone to infiltrate the bio lab that handled the investigation. Giving Chesney Barrett a cover story as a newspaper reporter, she’s sent to interview the virologists at the bio lab in Texas. With Virologists, Dr. Martin Giles, they uncover a mysterious person wearing a coat in an elevator that may have been the origin of the virus, and this leads them to Kentucky and mines that have been shut down, and talk of a mysterious ghost who is righting wrongs. The virus is biding its time, preparing to become the dreaded Doomsday virus, which will eventually kill the other 400 people from the hotel and everyone they have come into contact with.

This is the third novel by the author that follows Chesney Barrett and Travis Weld in a topnotch page-turner. Using a similar plot to Jericho’s Trumpet, only this time a deadly virus instead of nuclear bombs, both novels were exciting page-turners. This is also a 5-star read, except for problems with the text. A proofreader would have helped. There weren’t too many wrong words, but a few that could have been corrected. My main problem was multiple voices in the same paragraph. Some of this looked like formatting problems, but others appeared intentional. For such a great read, the author should have insured no problem with the text and formatting. Highly recommended.

Tom Johnson

Author of AN INVITATION TO DEATH

Jericho's Trumpet

“Rousing gunfire and espionage elevated by an indelible protagonist.” – Kirkus Review Jericho’s Trumpet is a sequel to Robert Gallant’s Satan’s Stronghold which is also an action-packed plot but of more complex threats. This narrative showcases more of what Chesney Barrett can offer to Travis Weld’s team and to the government. Chesney Barrett has finally accepted a life different from what she is used to. After accomplishing her mission of working as an undercover spy to locate the drug den and help capture the perpetrators; she has continued living from a different perspective. She has finally come to terms with deception being the norm, as what Weld has instilled in her. Chesney now shows-off her charisma as a science-fair judge in order to trace the smuggled nuclear bomb into US. While seemingly this focuses on Chesney and her undeniable talent, Weld on the other hand remains being the tough guy and works on his own with Cassidy as his partner. Weld’s impatience and desperation to get the thing done will likely put their lives at stake. Will they make it the second time around and find the smuggled bomb before it’s too late?

Jericho’s Trumpet (Action Thriller)

By Robert Gallant

Independent Publishing Platform

ISBN # 978-0578208107

Price $11.99 (Paperback)

Price Free (Kindle)

287 Pages

Rating 4-Stars

Travis Weld works for a secret government group that searches for and kills terrorist groups. They’ve just discovered sellers with two suitcase nuclear bombs from Russia. They kill the sellers, but find one bomb missing. It’s been sold to someone and they must find out who has it, and fast. One of the dead men has a daughter who is involved in a science fair, and she may know whom her father sold the second bomb to. But it will take someone with more finesse to get the information from the girl. They go to their ace in the hole, Chesney Barrett, a recent recruit into their game of death. Chesney is an athlete, an Olympic swimming champion, and a biologist, plus she’s sexy and beautiful. The story follows her as she infiltrates an ecological terrorist organization run by someone they think has the second bomb.

This was an exciting action-packed story with fresh characters that pulled me into the story from the beginning. I did find it a little far-fetched that only this one team and one lonely FBI agent is out looking for the terrorists when the whole alphabet soup agencies would have been put on the case if it was real. In fact, the FBI agent doesn’t even know there’s a nuclear bomb in the mix. The special team is the only ones who know about the nuclear suitcase. The author’s story telling is superior and the characters are topnotch, but there are so many wrong words page after page that it became a distraction. An editor or proofreader could have cleaned it up, and the author would have had a great book to present to readers. As it was, I had to knock it down to a 4-Star rating, when it should have been a 5-Star novel. Still, highly recommended.

Tom Johnson

Author of NINA FONTAYNE

Recruited

When four US and Canadian forward air controllers were taken hostage by an Islamic terrorist organization during a blistering seesaw battle in Iraq, CANUS-ETF (Canada United States Expeditionary Targeting Force) knew they had to act fast. A hundred million dollars was demanded and everyone knew there was no way the ransom would be paid.

The best chance for rescue was to deploy a small team of elite combat rescuers. American Navy Seal Captain Jonathan Rogers was chosen to head the mission. His Canadian counterpart was twenty-six-year-old Rayna Tan, the first woman to ever lead a Special Forces operation in the Middle East. She had proven herself as a warrior leader but this mission had exceptional potential perils.

Recruited (Thriller)

By Wesley Robert Lowe

Independent Publishing Platform

ASIN # B01AO5Q2MA

Price Free (Kindle)

97 Pages

Rating 3-Stars

Rayna Tan, born in China, adopted by Harry and Vivien Chang of Honk Kong, then moved to the US and Canada, having dual citizenship. Rayne is highly educated, a black belt in Judo, Wushu, and Tae-Kwan-do, joins the Canadian Joint Task Force 2 (JTF2), where she rises to the rank of captain, and leader of an assault team. Her counterpart in the SEALS is captain Jonathan Rogers, who sacrifices his life to save others. When her boyfriend, Tanner, is gunned down by a drug gang just when she accepts his marriage proposal, she tries to disappear, but finds the gang can easily find her. She contacts Jonathan’s father, one of the guiding members of Fidelitas, an assassin group better trained than the Navy SEALS and Army Special Forces, where she goes through vigorous training before going after the Pablo Escobar drug cartel in South America.

This was a short story, prequel to the series mainly to introduce Rayna Tan and the other main players in the future series. With all her training, she seemed more like a green trainee than a professional soldier when she’s placed in training with Fidelitas, and I had a hard time visualizing her as Chinese. The author doesn’t capture that oriental mystique in Rayna Tan, and it makes her appear just as another Caucasian heroine. Recruited doesn’t give much promise for the future series unless the author can retool his main character enough to make her real to the reader.

Tom Johnson

Author of CARNIVAL OF DEATH

Vincent

Jim Thompson is having a bad year.

Last year; he celebrated his twenty-fifth wedding anniversary, had a good job he liked, and a home for retirement he built himself.

This year, at fifty-four years of age; he is divorced, unemployed, and homeless.

Fortunately, his luck is about to change.

Enter Vincent, an extraterrestrial visitor with a crucial mission to save both our world and his, and a lesson on just how small Jim's place in the universe is.

To help the alien and save two worlds, Jim must overcome his shortcomings to become the hero Vincent so desperately needs.

Vincent (SF/Thriller)

By Jonathan G. Meyer

Independent Publishing Platform

ISBN # 978-1548404987

Price $11.95 (Paperback)

Price $4.99 (Kindle)

240 Pages

Rating 5-Stars

Jim Thompson is living in the back of his pickup truck under a bridge.  At 54 years old, he was married for 25 years, with a good job, a home he had built. Then his world came crashing down when his wife asked for divorce, and she took the house in the settlement. Rummaging through trash in an alley for things he might be able to sell, one day he finds what he thinks is someone’s toy drone, a small silver disk. Dragging it back to his pickup, he is suddenly bathed in a strange blue light and shrinks to the size of a mouse. The portal in the silver disc opens and he’s drawn inside. The disc is a flying saucer, and an AI named Vincent explains that he was responsible for bringing a highly destructive weapon to Earth, and must retrieve it and return it to his own world, Senara. However, being a machine Vincent needs a human to do its fetching. The previous human turned out to be an ex senator named Jack Smith who wants the weapon for himself, and has hired mercenaries to help him. Smith has half the machine hidden away on an island, but needs the second part, a key. Vincent needs Jim to obtain the key for him, then attack the island stronghold of Jack Smith and retrieve the other part of the machine. Jim needs a helper, and along comes Claire Haversham, a widow about his own age.

I loved this story. The writing is smooth, and reads fast, and the characters come alive. There is action from the beginning through the end when a hurricane hits the island as Vincent, Jim and Claire are attempting to steal the part being held by Jack Smith. The island is basically swept away as the winds destroy everything on the island, and Jack Smith captures the little team in his below ground shelter where he holds the alien weapon. Just on the brink of saving two worlds, Senara and Earth, it looks like our heroes have failed. Can help come from another source in time to save them? Highly recommended to SF and Adventure fans.

Tom Johnson

Author of THE JUR SERIES