My Blog

Retirement. Publishers, thank you for the many years of reading pleasure you gave me, but all good things must come to an end. Due to failing eyesight I am forced to retire. I can no longer review your books, and any that you send will be donated to the local library, unread. Do not send any more. I can only read for a couple hours every day, and this does not allow me to finish a book in reasonable time. I will be devoting time to my own books from now on, and reading on a personal level. Books that interest me. I prefer paperbacks and hardbacks, not eBooks. My eyesight has been failing the last few years, and I cannot handle hundreds of review books any more. My books are still available for review. Anyone interested in reviewing any of them, they are found in the Link to Tom’s Books On Amazon. Contact me for pdf copies at fadingshadows40@gmail.com

Monday, September 23, 2019

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

Friday, September 13, 2019

Shadow of The Dagger


A Secret Map to Priceless Treasure, A CIA Analyst Turned Detective
Three people are murdered and one kidnapped to find the solution to the map. As Nicole Phillips seeks to find her kidnapped brother, she doesn’t know whom to trust. No one is who they appear to be. All is deception.
To bring his brother’s murderer to justice, CIA Intel Analyst Josh Baruch puts his life on the line. Can he walk the tightrope between obeying the killers’ instructions and bringing them to justice?
Because Nicole Phillips’s husband died in a mysterious plane crash, she fears falling in love again with a reckless, danger-loving type like her late husband. Josh Baruch, the CIA analyst using her as bait to track her brother’s kidnapper, is just such a risk-taking man. Besides living on the edge, Josh is bitter about women and questions God.


Shadow of The Dagger (Christian/Romance/Thriller)
By Anne Greene
Elk Lake Publishing
ISBN  978-1951080204
400 Pages
Price $12.99 (Paperback)
Price $2.99 (Kindle)
Rating 5-Stars

We meet Nicole Phillips when she travels to the crash site of the plane piloted by her husband. There was no body, but investigators believe coyotes may have dragged the body away. A year later her brother is invited to an archeological dig in Turkey, and he talks Nicole into joining him. Unfortunately, when she arrives in Turkey she discovers Ian has been kidnapped. In the meantime, CIA analyst, Josh Baruch believes the man who killed his brother is responsible for the kidnapping, and is waiting in Turkey for Nicole Phillips when she arrives, as he plans on using her for bait to catch Helmut Meier, better known as The Viper, and the murderer of Josh’s brother.

The author sent me a copy of the book for an honest review. This is a complicated plot, with interesting characters, set in a location known for international spies and intrigue. Josh Baruch is a Jewish American, and well familiar with Turkey, as he was stationed at Incirlik AFB in Adana, Turkey, a place I am also very familiar with. I was stationed there with the Army in 1964, at TUSLOG, as a squad leader with the rank of corporal. 

This was a great read, though a few things did bother me. The villain is supposedly the third richest man in the world, but seems to be after small profit in current crime, and a man so rich should have enough lawyers to keep him out of jail (in this case, an American federal prison). Plus, we find that there is someone pulling his strings also, a minor criminal that is behind the whole mess, and he is after Nicole Phillips, as well as the treasure. Now for detective Pavlik, a Russian with the Turkey police, and master of disguise who plays many parts that just don’t seem to fit. In the end an American Air Force rescue team saves the day on Turkey soil, which also was a worrisome finale to a great plot – personally, it would have appeared more legit if the team was led by a Turkey command. Over all, the Christian background is a delight in this international thriller set in Muslim controlled Turkey, and well worth the read. Highly recommended.

Tom Johnson
Author of THE MAN IN THE BLACK FEDORA

Wednesday, September 4, 2019

Welcome To Miskatonic University

Odd tales of campus life at Miskatonic University from Brandon O'Brien - Bennett North - Kristi DeMeester - Elliot Cooper - Liz Schriftsteller - KG McAbee - Brenda Kezar - Nate Southard - Scott R. Jones - Gina Marie Guadagnino -Joseph S. Pulver, Sr. - Marcus Chan - Gwendolyn Kiste - Matthew M. Bartlett
This is your first year? Welcome! Oh, you're going to love it here at Miskatonic. Just . . . be careful. I mean, I'm sure everything will be fine, but you know, things happen. This can be a strange place. You hear stories: people changing and buildings rearranging, ghostly sounds and overly attentive textbooks, odd notions and foul deeds . . . even monsters! Hah. Just stories, right? Sure.
Faculty struggling for funding in the occult sciences. Students trying to navigate whole new worlds of possibility. Administration striving for growth and progress and not just damage control. And Arkham residents adjusting to the constant influx of new faces.
Just study hard. Party safe. Maybe find love. And don't die.


Welcome To Miskatonic University (Horror Fiction)
By Various Authors
Broken Eye Books
ISBN 978-1940372235
258 Pages
Price $19.99 (Paperback)
Price $6.99 (Kindle)
Rating 5-Stars

An anthology of top authors, all stories taking place at the Miskatonic University, where horror abides. A fictional university created by H.P. Lovecraft in a 1922 novel, the university is located in Arkham, a fictional town in Essex County, Massachusetts. The university and its faculty come alive - for a while, at least - in these 13 tales. Believe me, monsters find their way here to feed off those unwary souls who bring them forth.

I was given a copy of the book from the authors for an honest review. All of the writing is excellent, and the stories honor H.P, Lovecraft, as each author tells their tale of weird menace. As with any anthology, there will be one story that the reviewer will like a bit more, perhaps, than the rest. Although I enjoyed them all, I think my favorite yarn was Official Inquiry Into The Waite-Gilman-Carter Antarctic Expedition by K.G. McAbee. Wasn’t that a great title? You just know that expedition has brought back some terrifying monster for the professors to examine. Highly recommended.

Tom Johnson
Author of THW MAN IN THE BLACK FEDORA