10
Jun 2010

Collision of Evil by John J. Le Beau

By 9 Comments

An American tourist is murdered while hiking in the woods in Germany. It was his luck as he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. The tourist, Charles Hirter had seeked shelter in a cave only to find some mysterious crates stored there. Before he could emerge out of the woods, he was savagely murdered by the person who’s been guarding the hidden crates in the cave.

Highly unfortunate for the murderer, Charles’ brother, Robert Hirter happens to be a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officer. He is determined to solve his brother’s murder case, together with German detective Kommissar Franz Waldbaer who is in charge of the case.

As they work hard in their investigations, they make a lot of discoveries which lead to more questions. Desperate for more clues, Robert accepted the invitation to meet up with a mysterious stranger who wished to tell him a story which can be a background for the murder situation. The stranger turned out to be a veteran soldier of the Third Reich and he tells Robert about how his and other soldiers’ final mission where they had to transport some crates with unknown contents.

It’s been awhile since I read a mystery novel or a thriller. I was hoping for this to be action-packed or at least be a quick read where I’ll be flipping through the pages to know what’s next. However, it was quite slow in the beginning and slower in the middle. The process of Robert unraveling the mystery of the murder case seemed never-ending. Only towards the end of the story did the real action begin.

Mysteries and thrillers usually have some romance going on between the main character, if male, and the leading female character. Well, there’s not much romantic relationships in the story but there is a hint of romance between Robert and a fellow CIA officer, Caroline, though they’ve only met a couple of times and mainly communicated via phone during the course of the investigation. He’s in Germany while she’s in the United States.

Judging from the cover of the book, one can guess what the story’s about. There’s the Swastika or the Hakenkreuz logo as used by Nazi Germany and an image of some Islamic writing. I guessed earlier that it has to be connected to Nazi Germany and terrorism. The title of the novel has been cleverly thought of too, since it’s about the idea of an evil past threatening to intersect with the evil present. Thus, it’s a collision of evil.

And oh my, there is a very gruesome murder scene in the novel, carried out by the villain. I have to applaud Mr Le Beau for describing it so well that I cringed when I read it. Actually, there is a lot of description in the novel which is why it is relatively wordy.

It’s a good story though only if it were written in a faster-paced manner. Collision of Evil is John J. Le Beau’s first novel, by the way. He served as a clandestine operations officer in the CIA for over 25 years.

***Thanks to Maryglenn McCombs for sending me an ARC of this novel to review.

Other reviews: Bookjourney, Secret Dreamworld of a Bookaholic

Popularity: 3%

Categories: Authors L, Genre - Thriller, Titles C
06
Apr 2008

The Secret Scroll by Ronald Cutler

By 2 Comments

The title itself has made me eager to get started on reading the book. The Secret Scroll…it sounds pretty mysterious and exciting, don’t you think?

Anyway, the hero is supposed to be American archaeology professor, Josh Cohan. He has been dreaming some weird dreams about a cave somewhere in Jerusalem. Something inside the cave, which is The Scroll, is waiting for him to find it. Wouldn’t it be fun if we had dreams like his that would help us make the most important discoveries in our lifetime? But then, life would get a little bit too exciting.

Because Josh made that tremendously ‘fantastic’ discovery, he has put his and other people’s lives in absolute danger. When Josh translated the scroll, as it’s written in Aramaic, he found out that it was supposedly written by Jesus Christ himself! Now that is one heck of a crucial discovery and Josh has to make sure that it does not fall into the wrong hands.

Since the scroll was found in Jerusalem, Josh must hand it over to the Israel Antiquities Authority or The IAA. While he was trying to pass the scroll to them, there are other people too who wants the scroll badly. They are The Guardians, a cult who believes that they are the only true Christians in the world and wish to eradicate those who don’t share their faith.

Therefore, Josh and a team of archaeologists from The IAA set out to translate the scroll to determine if it’s really written by Jesus Christ. Also, there is someone from The IAA who has been leaking out information to The Guardians. Actually, there are a number of traitors and I had a fun time trying to guess who they were. Sadly, all my guesses were wrong. =D You’d be truly surprised when you read the book.

Besides action and adventure, there is also romance between Josh and the daughter of an archaeologist from The IAA, Danielle. Actually, Danielle has suffered more than Josh since she has been kidnapped and molested by The Guardians. I’ve noticed that Josh didn’t really go all out to save the woman he loves. He was more interested in translating the scroll.

Nevertheless, The Secret Scroll is an incredibly exhilarating read. You never know what’s going to happen next and I really enjoyed doing a lot of speculation while reading. It’s easy to read so you can probably finish it in less than a week or maybe even a few days. But do take note that Ronald Cutler embarked on a research that took him more than two years to create this book!

Oh, I also like the short chapters in this book. I don’t like long chapters because then, reading would be tiring. I usually stop reading at the end of a chapter and then take a break or something, so short chapters are always welcomed. =) There is a simple map of Jerusalem on two pages in the front part of the book, so you can refer to it if you want to get a clearer picture of Josh’s journey.

For fans of The Da Vinci Code, I highly recommend The Secret Scroll. Incidentally, this is Ronald Cutler’s first novel.

***Thanks to Lisa Roe for sending me a copy of this book!

Other Bloggers’ Reviews: naida

Popularity: 3%

Categories: Authors C, Genre - Thriller, Titles S
17
Apr 2007

Firestarter by Stephen King

By 8 Comments

Who’s the firestarter in this book? Why, it’s only a little girl! So young and innocent and yet she is able to start fires that could burn you to death.

Firestarter by Stephen King is one of the many interesting and thought-provoking books that I’ve read. The little firestarter’s name is Charlene McGee or just Charlie. Her parents, Andy and Vicky, once needed 200 dollars when they were young and they had participated in some weird drug experiment to get the money.

Andy felt uncomfortable during the experiment and saw some gory incidents but was told later that he was merely hallucinating, part of the side effects of the experimental drug called Lot Six, which was injected into him. However, after the day of the experiment and after getting his 200 bucks, he discovered that he had the ability to ‘push’ other people into doing things he wanted them to do. Vicky, who eventually became his wife, had telekinetic abilities, too like turning off the TV even though she’s nowhere near it.

Then, they had a daughter, Charlie. Charlie would unintentionally light fires when she’s agitated, angry or just feeling extremely emotional. It was dangerous when she was a baby because if her bottle of milk was late, then there would be fire burning somewhere. That’s why her parents kept fire extinguishers all around the house.

Vicky and Andy did not know that they were being watched by a secret government agency, The Shop. The Shop is actually a scientific department and now, they want to get hold of Charlie to study her ability to start fires just by thinking about doing it. Her talent is called pyrokinesis.

However, they are being merciless towards the McGee family. They will do anything just to have Charlie. Therefore, Andy and Charlie are on the run, away from the agents of The Shop. Andy knew they were in serious trouble when he came home one day to find his wife dead.

Nonetheless, this book has lots of unimportant parts that were relatively boring to me. I enjoyed reading the ending though. ‘Scary’, ‘frightening’, and ‘terrifying’ were among the words used to describe the book. Hmmm, well, I guess a part or two was chilling enough. I would call this book entertaining and it made me feel tremendously sad for Charlie. No 7-year-old deserves to live such a terrifying life.

The story was adapted into a movie in 1984 with Drew Barrymore acting as Charlie! This is getting even more interesting. Looks like I’m going to be on a hunt for the movie now.

Other Bloggers’ Reviews: Erin

Popularity: 45%

Categories: Authors K, Genre - Thriller, Titles F Tags: