The Spy Across The Table

In this exciting international thriller featuring Japanese antiques art dealer and PI Jim Brodie, a double-murder at the Kennedy Center forces Brodie into a dangerous game of espionage—putting him in the crosshairs of the Chinese, North Korean, and American governments.

Jim Brodie is an antiques dealer, Japan expert, and second-generation private investigator. When two theater friends are murdered backstage at a Kennedy Center performance in Washington, DC, he’s devastated—and determined to hunt down the killer. He’s not the only one.

After the attack, Brodie is summoned to the White House. The First Lady was the college roommate of one of the victims, and she enlists Brodie—off the books—to use his Japanese connections to track down the assassin. Homeland Security head Tom Swelley is furious that the White House is meddling and wants Brodie off the case. Why? For the same reason a master Chinese spy known only as Zhou, one of the most dangerous men alive, appears on the scene: Those murders were no random act of violence.

Brodie flies to Tokyo to attend the second of two funerals, when his friend’s daughter Anna is kidnapped during the ceremony. It is then Brodie realizes that the murders were simply bait to draw her out of hiding. Anna, it seems, is the key architect of a top-secret NSA program that gathers the personal secrets of America’s most influential leaders. Secrets so damaging that North Korea and China will stop at nothing to get them.

The Spy Across The Table (International Thriller)

By Barry Lancet

Simon & Shuster

ISBN #978-1476794914

Price $17.10 (Hardback)

448 Pages

Rating 5-Stars

“A Thrill Ride A Minute.”

Jim Brodie is in Washington DC visiting the Kennedy Center to watch his Japanese friend’s Kabuki performance when the Japanese designer and another friend are murdered. Afterwards, he is approached by the Secret Service and taken before the First Lady. The stage designer was also a college friend of hers, and she wants Brodie to investigate the murders (you would think the FBI would be called in) . No sooner does he take the case, than Homeland Security agents let by Tom Swelley begin harassing him and beats him up. The case gets more tangled in Japan when he brings the Brodie Detective Agency into the Japanese end of the case.  Korean gangsters kidnap the daughter of the Japanese designer at the funeral, and Brodie discovers she is being transferred to North Korea. He must intercept the transfer, and heads to South Korea with a Marine combat squad to stop them from entering a tunnel on the DMZ. However, the team was spotted and the girl is moved to the border with China. Now Brodie must enter China, but tangles with the Chinese spy, Zhou, and is captured and turned over to Chinese torturers. This is all great stuff in movies and fiction.

This was a nonstop thrill a minute ride, with political stumbling blocks along the way. It is a well-written yarn that kept me turning the pages. There were some things I didn’t like about it, mostly the portrayal of agents in our intelligence departments. Men like Tom Swelley would have been dismissed long before he got out of hand. Everyone has a boss, and heads roll when agents go amok. Another thing is our Ambassadors; they do not go against the President of the United States. They represent the president.  The actions of the American Ambassador to Japan was beyond imbecilic. And finally, let’s look at torture. Yes, torture does exist, and it is horrible. But I can guarantee the Chinese would have obtained what they wanted from Brodie within hours without torture, they didn’t need to use physical torture to get the information they wanted.  But Brodie goes through many days of torture. Now, what happens to a person after they have been tortured for days on end? They don’t get up and fight, or cross China in an automobile. They need physical and mental therapy for months before they can perform anything close to normal. I won’t even discuss the subject of a Chinese spy rescuing Brodie, except to say it wouldn’t happen. Still, with all these things I didn’t like with the story, this is a work of fiction, and as such, it is very entertaining, and I highly recommend it to readers.

Tom Johnson

Author of ASSIGNMENNT: NINA FONTAYNE

The Asset

In the exciting new thriller from the author of the internationally bestselling Intern’s Handbook, a private airport security contractor becomes a counterterrorism operative and must stop an attack that will destabilize the US and cause global chaos.

Kennedy—a private airport security contractor—knows more about airports than the head of the TSA, and he feels more comfortable in his British Airways Club World flatbed seat than in his own home. Haunted by the memory of his sister’s death on 9/11, Kennedy takes his job and the protection of the American people very seriously. So when he’s kidnapped and recruited into a CIA ghost operation known as Red Carpet, he jumps at the opportunity to become a civilian asset working with a team of some of the CIA's best counterterrorism analysts and spec ops soldiers as they race against the clock to stop the greatest terrorist threat the United States will ever face.

Shane Kuhn’s bold, darkly comic voice has earned him rave reviews for his previous series, starting with the Intern’s Handbook, which was called, “a serious guilty pleasure” by The Seattle Times and, “explosively violent and psychologically wily the way a good thriller should be” by the New York Post. Shane brings that same intense voice and gripping storytelling to The Asset—an edge-of-your seat read you won’t be able to put down.

The Asset (Thriller)

By Shane Kuhn

Simon & Schuster

ISBN #978-1501140372

Price $2013 (Hardback)

288 Pages

Rating 2-Stars

“A Waste of My Time.”

Kennedy, a TSA security expert, is kidnapped in America, and wakes up in a meat locker with carcasses of pigs hanging on meat hooks. Men who look and sound like Arabs threaten to cut his head off if he doesn’t answer their questions. After telling the men he will answer their questions, the men argue among themselves and leave the locker. Alone, it doesn’t take him long to cut his bindings loose and escape through the ceiling. But when he steps out he’s in a Paris café where a beautiful woman named Alia meets him. She tells him it was just a test to see how he would react in a similar situation, and he has passed the test. I’m not sure how he passed, since he had willingly agreed to answer all their questions. Then to further throw me, Alia says she’s recruiting him to lead her team of trained CIA agents in Red Carpet, a super secret CIA group to foil a monstrous terrorist plot. If this is how the CIA does business, I wonder how it has existed for so long. A young man, without CIA or military training (although he keeps hinting at working with Israel), is going to lead seasoned agents in an effort to foil a terrorist plot. This boggles the mind. His motivation, however, was Belle, his sister’s death in one of the planes on September 11, 2001, while he was talking with her on the phone. First, let’s look at the team:

Alia – Red Carpet CIA team boss.

Kennedy – Team Leader, knowledge of airport security.

Juarez – under Alia, not sure what he’s good at.

Lambert – rugged, built like a football lineman. He doesn’t last too long.

Nuri – Asian, she’s a computer specialist.

Trudeau – weapons specialist, will know when certain weapons are moved around the world.

Best – paramilitary specialist, ex- Navy SEAL.

The bad guy:

Lentz – evil person

First mission: To watch TSA & Department of Homeland Security, as evil person may have people inside those organizations.

        

Page 75, Quote: “Kennedy was feeling overwhelmed. He was used to dealing with marginally educated people who looked at him as their shining beacon of guidance, not a bizarre collection of idiosyncratic CIA officers, most of whom had some very dangerous talents.” End Quote.

Really? I couldn’t help thinking he also believes his readers are marginally educated, too. I almost tossed the book in the trash by this point. But if I had, I would have missed the double coincidence. Let me explain. As we reach about page 100 another team member is brought in, who wasn’t mentioned in the beginning, named Mitchell. He’s described as mean and tough with stringy muscles, that sort of thing. We know he’s a killer right off, so someone is going to be killed. Sure enough, there is a confrontation with two TSA men, and Mitchell kills them. Of course, we’re told the Red Carpet team had been watching these men for a long time, and knew they were agents of Lentz, the evil guy. These were merely coincidences, right, the new guy, the killing of TSA men? Now I’m wondering how long Mitchell will stay around.

Actually. Kennedy quits Red Carpet after the killing. He hadn’t bargained on things getting rough, but Juarez asks him to help out without Alia’s knowledge. As if this couldn’t get any weirder, to bring in a Lentz’ aide, Kennedy recruits his and Belle’s old friend, a popular singer named Love to sweet talk the fellow, getting him on their side.

If I go on, I will reveal everything, and that’s not acceptable. Let me just say the plot involves the planned detonation of a ten-kiloton nuclear bomb on American soil. To give the author credit he is probably a fan of Tom Clancy, and the Bourne novels and movies. Unfortunately, I found his plot and characters lacking in well-crafted work. The writing appears to merely be an exercise of putting words on paper and calling it a novel. In my opinion it was a failure. The publisher evidently found it worth publishing, however. I felt I wasted my time reading the book, and cannot honestly recommend it for thriller fans.

Tom Johnson

Author of ASSIGNMENT NINA FONTAYNE

All The Missing Girls

It’s been ten years since Nicolette Farrell left her rural hometown after her best friend, Corinne, disappeared from Cooley Ridge without a trace. Back again to tie up loose ends and care for her ailing father, Nic is soon plunged into a shocking drama that reawakens Corinne’s case and breaks open old wounds long since stitched.

The decade-old investigation focused on Nic, her brother Daniel, and boyfriend Tyler, and Corinne’s boyfriend Jackson. Since then, only Nic has left Cooley Ridge. Daniel and his wife, Laura, are expecting a baby; Jackson works at the town bar; and Tyler is dating Annaleise Carter, Nic’s younger neighbor and the group’s alibi the night Corinne disappeared. Then, within days of Nic’s return, Annaleise goes missing.

Told backwards—Day 15 to Day 1—from the time Annaleise goes missing, Nic works to unravel the truth about her younger neighbor’s disappearance, revealing shocking truths about her friends, her family, and what really happened to Corinne that night ten years ago.

All The Missing Girls (A Murder Mystery)

By Megan Miranda

Simon & Schuster

ISBN #978-1501107962

Price $16.73 Hardback

384 Pages

Rating 5-Stars

“A Well Written, Interesting Plot.”

Leaving Cooley Ridge for college at 18, Nicolette left a life behind her, but something was pulling her back. Something unfinished. Working as a school councilor. She is on break when she gets a note from her father that only says, “I saw that girl.” That “girl” was her best friend, Corinne, who had disappeared ten years ago after a party night at the local fair. Her father was in a care center, sometimes in normal mind, but most times in another world of his own. But Nic has to go back. Her brother Daniel needs to sell the family house, and they need their dad’s consent. But why is her dad bringing up Corinne at this point? She needs to find out, and bring closure to her past.

Ten years ago, when Corinne disappeared, Nic’s close friends were suspects in what the police considered a homicide case. These included her brother, Daniel, her boyfriend, Tyler, and Corinne’s boyfriend, Jackson. But her body was never found, and not enough evidence to bring charges against any of the suspects. But now there is another missing girl, Annaleise, who was 13 when Corinne disappeared, but 23 now. Before she disappeared Annaleise called a cop asking to discuss the old case, but before they could meet, she too was gone. Now the old case is back on everyone’s mind, and Annaleise’s disappearance may have something to do with the ten-year-old disappearance of Corinne.

This was a well written, and interesting murder mystery. The author moves the story backwards, which could be confusing to some, but it works better this way. I thought I had the murder solved within the first fifty pages, but didn’t count on the sleight of hand the author used to keep us off balance. The main character is telling us the story, so she reveals the mystery how she wants us to understand it, keeping us focused elsewhere. I liked the plot, and the author’s writing style, and the mystery should capture the reader’s interest, and keep them turning the pages. Highly recommended.

Tom Johnson

Author of CARNIVAL OF DEATH

Dark Debts

In Dark Debts, Karen Hall masterfully combines southern gothic, romantic comedy, and mystery in a wildly original theological thriller that has become a cult favorite since being published twenty years ago. In this new anniversary edition, the author has reimagined her work. The result is a suspenseful, irreverent, and deeply spiritual novel that captivates from the very beginning and doesn’t let go.

When Randa, a reporter for an alternative newspaper in Los Angeles, receives an urgent phone call from her estranged lover, Cam, she rushes to his apartment. She arrives to discover that he’s leapt from the building to his death. Police believe that before committing suicide, Cam also murdered someone in a convenience store, but Randa does not believe Cam is capable of such an act. She seeks out Cam’s brother, Jack, who is living off the grid, somewhere near Atlanta, in hope of figuring out what really happened.

Meanwhile, a Jesuit priest named Michael Kinney has been exiled from New York City to the boondocks of Georgia after making controversial public statements. He has said things that educated people of faith are not supposed to express. Even more problematically, he has fallen in love with a woman, and the last surviving member of his family has kept a shocking family secret from him.

How these characters converge is part of the thrilling mystery of Dark Debts, a cult favorite first published twenty years ago. In this new edition, author Karen Hall has re-imaged her southern gothic tale and the result is a work of even greater power—a brilliantly realized and suspenseful evocation of the conflict between good and evil.

Dark Debts (Thriller)

By Karen Hall

Simon & Schuster

ISBN #978-1501104114

Price $13.50

415 Pages

Rating 5-Stars

“Satanic Possession.”

When Randa Phillips gets a call from her old boyfriend, Cam Landry, asking her to come over, she does, only to discover he has jumped from his widow in an act of suicide. To Randa, a newspaper reporter, it doesn’t make sense. Cam had just received a two hundred thousand dollar advance for his next book. Everything appeared to be going his way. Suicide could not be true. Now she felt responsible for getting his property to a brother that may not ever care that he had died. When Randa starts digging deeper into his background, she discovers a family secret so horrible it has resulted in many deaths and other atrocities.

Father Michael Kinney, a catholic Jesuit priest is called in by family friends to talk to their son, whom the parents believe is possessed. What he finds is too big for him to handle alone, and the church power refuses to help him, so he seeks the aid of an independent priest who has performed exorcisms before, but the demon is too powerful for them, and before the church can save the boy he murders his parents, leaving Father Kinney feeling partly responsible. But when his mentor dies, he learns there is a deeper secret that goes beyond the boy, and connects to an evil even more powerful than he imagined, tying him into a family cursed through several generations.

 The writing was excellent, and the story moved smoothly. In a world of evil, when men are as evil as the demons they hope to defeat, the battle seems to be unwinnable. Demons know our weaknesses before we will admit them, and they use those weaknesses to possess our bodies. The author uses the Catholic Church and priests in this story, but she could have used men of any denomination, for men are sinful regardless of what cloth they wear. To see men trying to solve problems while wallowing in their own sin is likely a sin against God itself. First, we need to truly turn over our lives to Him before we can act for Him. That the world is filled with such sin can be seen all around us, and the author paints a clear picture of one family’s curse, but doesn’t notice how large the problem really is. Still, the painting is plain, and the message is clear. There is a war going on. A war between Good and Evil. I did get the impression that the author did not believe the Bible, her characters often calling it a book of fairy tales. I wasn’t so disturbed, as one reviewer was, by Jesus wearing jeens in the story, only that the Bible tells us when He returns, He will return in all His Glory, and all eyes will see Him. To have Him appearing to the priest in jeens, or anything else, was not a good idea. But I highly recommend this as a work of fiction. The story of a family possessed could give you nightmares – if you don’t have the Savior.

Tom Johnson

Author of THE SOUL STEALERS