Early Reviews of Vengeance - The Debut Thriller by Bryan Koepke.
Fast Pace Location-Based Action, March 29, 2014
By
Jean M. MacLeay (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: VENGEANCE (Kindle Edition)
A great premise of an engineer turned private investigator launches this first novel of what is sure to be a series. The action shifts to and from the Rockies near Vail, Tulsa, St. Louis, and everywhere in between. I liked the personifications built into each character... some officious, some conniving, and some just down-to-earth good guys. We can only hope that hero Reece Culver doesn't return for long to his engineering career!
Strong mystery, strong suspense, March 22, 2014
This review is from: VENGEANCE (Kindle Edition)
This is a thriller that satisfies on a number of different levels. A son's search for who killed his father is intertwined with a high-society art theft ring. Reece Culver is a different kind of PI, and Crystal Thomas was silky as a seductress. Good characters, great Western action. The fresh approach here is why I always love to read debut novels.
Book Review of Hazardous Material
Written by Kurt Kamm
Literary Awards for Hazardous Material - Winner of the 2012 Hackney Literary Award for an unpublished novel - First Place, Novel of the 2013 Year, Public Safety Writers Association - The 2012 Dana Award – Finalist.
My Review
Bucky Dawson has a nose for trouble, literally. After seeing a woman he thinks might have been his sister at a trailer suspected of being a meth lab just before it exploded Bucky Dawson sets off on a journey that threatens to end him and gnaws at the very threads of emotion that hold him together. Battling an increasing addiction to Percocet Bucky, a Hazmat Officer, searches for clues to the past life of his sister Brandy and her involvement with a biker gang named the Vagos.
The story takes place in the Mojave Desert, a place Kurt Kamm seems very familiar with. As the plot twists Bucky heads into battle multiple times only to return to his home bruised and battered. With no one to talk to except a detective named Mike and his pet lizard named Zol Bucky sinks toward desperation with only his increasing dependence on Percocet to bolster him. On leave from his job and expecting to loose it Bucky pushes forward and suspects the Meth lab activities of the Vagos are some how tied to an egocentric Aerospace Engineer with a degree from MIT who makes drones for the USAF.
Kamm’s characterization is well thought out and the reader is quickly drawn into the challenges and torments his protagonist, Bucky Dawson, faces. A villain named the Dwarf, who is the seven foot tall Sergeant at Arms of the Vagos gang, is a menacing challenge for Bucky’s clouded brain, and he and his brethren keep Bucky on his toes.
The book is well researched and Kamm has done his homework on biker gangs, methamphetamine, secret air force military bases, and drones.
The plotting is well thought out and the story reads quickly during its short 218 pages.
If you’re looking for a quick paced Thriller that will entertain and educate you Hazardous Material is the one.
Find the book here:
Book Review
Author: Joseph Finder Book Title: Vanished
Publisher: St. Martin's Press (August 2009)
Joseph Finder's novel Vanished begins with Roger and Lauren Heller walking back to their Mercedes after a night out to dinner at a Georgetown sushi restaurant. They get to the car and Roger realizes he’s left his keys back at the sushi place. He wants her to go with him, but she insists she’ll be ok waiting alone on a dark deserted street.
Just when Roger is a few hundred yards away some comes out of nowhere, and attacks Lauren Heller. She tries to fight back but is over powered and the last thing she hears before loosing consciousness is her husband Roger saying “Why her?”
Lauren Heller wakes up in a hospital and soon learns that her husband Roger has disappeared. With no one else to turn too Lauren’s 14-year-old son Gabe calls his uncle Nick for help. Nick Heller was in the Special Forces in Iraq and is now employed by a large corporate security firm that is know in many circles for finding the secrets that no one wants found. Using his connections Nick sets out to find a brother that seems kidnapped but for whom no one has demanded ransom.
In the process he protects his brother’s wife and son, and uncovers a trail of secrets spinning through many twists and turns. In the end Nick takes on a group of mercenaries, and begins to wonder if his brother Roger has gone down a path similar to their corrupt father Victor Heller.
The novel held my interest and was an easy read by Thriller standards. I did feel it lull in spots when the author got a little too deep into the narrative voice. The things I liked about the writing were the author’s level of description and technical knowledge.
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