Chanticleer Book Reviews

Tag: Chanticleer 5 Star Review

IDENTIFIED: A Hacker Thriller by John Wilander – Dystopian, Technothriller, Sci-Fi, Hard Hacker Fiction

Identified by John Wilander is a dystopian novel about the omniscient power of our potential cyber future.

West, a young man, spent 15 years in prison for hacking government systems. His mother, a highly visible activist against his imprisonment, is also trying unsuccessfully to get her health insurance to pay for her fight against a deadly medical condition. In Identified West believes the government is responsible for illegally blocking her insurance and vows to find out who’s behind the effort and put his mom back on the insurance rolls.

This is no easy task. Cybersecurity is now a fully linked global enterprise called the G20S, an expansion of today’s G20 nations. Virtually every form of human activity across the world can be logged by the system. It will take a small crew of talented hackers who call themselves the Survivors to develop unique hacker tools for West to break into the system, find the guilty, and get his mother insured. At every point, success could slip out of their grasp.

The Survivors make for a wild and charming cast of characters, well-integrated into their futuristic world.

One is a former adult actor who was pushed out of the business by AI fakes. Another, cheekily named BestBye, plays with a Rubik’s Cube Snake, with virtually endless possible solutions.

Identified maintains strong plausibility. Reading it is virtually a handbook for people curious about what hackers do and how they do it.

Nothing is out of bounds. Even a faked auto accident is a tool to develop a new identity among this group. Every move they make is under surveillance, with arrests and long prison sentences awaiting even the smallest misstep. Readers will feel awe at the efforts the Survivors make to hack the system, and share their dread at being caught.

Ultimately, this novel shares with readers the thrill of breaking into a closed system, doing what no one else can do, and defeating it no matter what the cost. Despite the futuristic setting, everything outlined in the book, from the government controls to the hackers’ tools, feels grounded in our world. This is confident writing, from an author who knows this subject deeply.

March 18, 2024
THE SPILL by Keith Abbott – Terrorism Thriller, Techno-Thriller, International Crime

In Keith Abbott’s thriller, The Spill, an intelligent, well-funded, politically connected organization of Arab Terrorists precipitates an environmental catastrophe meant to have world-shattering consequences – in their favor, of course.

But the best-laid plans of mice and men oft go astray. Their plans are uncovered, giving their opposition a chance to mobilize all of its forces. Those terrible consequences may be too late to completely thwart, but there is just enough time to channel the disaster in a way that could save the world rather than end it.

All it will take is one lawyer who refuses to let the villains win and one crackerjack scientist willing to go where no one has gone before – and come back to tell the tale.

The gripping story of The Spill begins with a well-planned and thoroughly executed environmental disaster – along with a couple of less well-planned actual executions. From there it’s a breakneck race, as American oil company executive Jesse Ford struggles to contain the oil spill itself, the political and economic fallout, and dig deeply into the causes that set this whole mess up in the first place.

Set against Jesse and his colleagues is a hidden cabal of scientifically-minded terrorists who plan to take the West down by a combination of stealth, bioterrorism, and fanaticism. The first stages of their plan go almost flawlessly, but it begins going off the rails once Jesse and company start digging into their network of secrets.

The characters on the two sides of this conflict, Jesse Ford and Aran Lassiter, are forceful and driven, and yet opposite in every way.

Much of the story is told through Ford’s first-person perspective. From inside his head, we see a pragmatic man, but one who cares about his people and has lines he never thought he would cross.

Aran Lassiter is his perfect foil, a man broken and reforged in pain. He has been molded into a weapon, willing to cross any line and break any rule – or person – to share his pain with everyone in his path – friend and enemy alike.

The Spill is a techno-thriller that’s compulsively page-turning from the very first word.

The plot to destroy the West is chilling in its execution – all the more so because it feels entirely too plausible. Readers will get close to Jesse and his team, to the point where each victory is a moment to cheer, and each loss heartbreaking.

To thwart the villains, these heroes turn to a solution so far out of the box that it’s sourced in science fiction – but the story is so riveting that even non-SF readers will be pulled along to the conclusion.

The ending manages to plant the seeds of later destruction in its victorious moment, leaving readers hungering for more of this absolute thrill ride of a read!

November 20, 2023
GOOD LOOKIN’: A Joe Turner Mystery by T. L. Bequette – Legal Thriller, Murder Thriller, Thriller/Suspense

T.L. Bequette’s debut novel, Good Lookin’: A Joe Turner Mystery, delivers a wallop from the first page to the last.

The murder mystery sucks readers in from the first page when an inmate attacks two guards and then Joe Turner – defense lawyer and protagonist. Bequette builds a high-stakes world in a gang-riddled neighborhood in Oakland for this fast-paced story. The odds and evidence stack against his client, Darnell Moore. Turner works through each witness and processes each piece of evidence, building suspense and sympathy for Darnell.

The problem centers on the power of the gang’s influence on his witnesses. Darnell claims innocence but won’t talk, afraid of backlash from the Iceboyz, a fearsome gang. Is he an initiate with a first kill gone wrong, or is he the fall guy for another gang member? He’s not talking.

With each interview, Turner sees Darnell go from a happy-go-lucky teen to a grim-faced inmate looking at twenty years behind bars.

Enter Chuck, a flip-flop-wearing old hippie P.I., and Turner’s sidekick. Chuck speaks in “a Southern drawl of movie lines and country idioms,” which adds a layer of humor to the tough court scenes. Chuck’s connections make him the valuable resource Turner needs to help him find the tiniest glimmer of hope in a case that threatens to bury Darnell alive. Bequette’s ability to develop unique and exciting characters will satisfy murder/mystery fans one and all.

Prosecutor Deputy District Attorney Nathan Didery, aka Jittery Didery, rises as another brilliant character with traits that will delight and infuriate readers. Bequette’s expertise and experience as a criminal defense attorney shine through on every page and elevates the credibility of this book. Bequette puts Turner through his paces, and the resulting authenticity is felt in every scene.

Turner’s office mate Andy Kopp, a personal injury attorney, sets him up with a woman named Edna between hearings and court proceedings.

She supposedly has a great personality. Reluctant but curious, Turner soon learns that Edna, aka Eddy, is a smokin’ hot babe, his match intellectually and in other ways. She becomes a permanent fixture until she applies for a job and gets it. The problem? The job’s in Rome, and as an archeologist, how can she refuse?

Even in the title, Bequette shows an understanding of the gang scene above the average person. The gang-slang “Good Lookin’” means to have someone’s back or to look out for them, but the double entendre is not lost on the reader when we meet Eddy.

Bequette juggles Turner’s love life and court appearances with expert craftsmanship and introduces each trial item and each relationship progression with a deft and sparing hand. We care about Joe and Eddy, and we care about Darnell, but is Darnell as innocent as he claims to be? And will Turner go to Rome with Eddy? Bequette keeps us guessing on both counts until the final pages of this extraordinary novel and very satisfying read.

August 16, 2021
TRAITORS for the SAKE of HUMANITY: A Novel of the German Resistance to Hitler by Helena P. Schrader – Historical World War II Fiction, Political Fiction, World War II Fiction

Traitors For the Sake of Humanity by Helena P. Schrader may be more terrifying today than when first released in 2008 as An Obsolete Honor and re-released in 2012 as Hitler’s Demons.

The chilling story reveals the means used under the leadership of Adolph Hitler to spread insidious Nazi socio-political ideology before and throughout WWII. Although a work of fiction, the grim, dehumanizing social transformation the tome reveals brings to mind the caution in George Santanya’s oft-quoted posit, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

Schrader masterfully utilizes the setting as an unseen, omnipresent character. Scenes imbued with equal parts of detached cruelty, greed, and hunger for power – acting as a control agent affecting everyone within its grasp.

By Christmas, 1938, when the story begins, the Nazi Party dominates the German Parliament for nearly six years, and its influence alters the nation’s face. Within that period, during which Hitler becomes Chancellor, both welcome and unwelcome changes occur and spread beyond Germany’s large cities into and throughout the countryside.

The German citizenry is conflicted.

Many poor, disenfranchised citizens consider forfeiting their faith, culture, and free will for materially improved living standards and restoring their national pride as an acceptable trade-off. Others grow dismayed by the denigration and annihilation of traditional values, virtues, and mores. Residents find the mandated, unfettered obedience to the state’s authority and the flourishing of Machiavellian values an abomination.

Within this setting, we meet the aristocratic, well-educated, and cultured Baron Phillip von Feldburg. Phillip, the eldest of three children, is an officer in the prestigious German General Staff and has been imbued from childhood with the importance of honor, integrity, and allegiance to his country.

In the first chapter, Baron von Feldberg is juxtaposed with his immediate family, characters Schrader utilizes to reveal some of the varying socio-political views prevalent in Germany.

Christian, his handsome, devil-may-care Luftwaffe fighter pilot brother, lives in the moment, exhilarated by his conquests and the thrill of adventure. Theresa, an envious, entitled, and defiant “youngest child,” marries an uneducated, self-made man with a knack for doing business in the Nazi regime and little use for breeding, manners, or culture. Their widowed mother, the Baroness, gracious, kind, and concerned – but not enough to make waves—completes the family circle.

Phillip’s sense of honor and duty dominates his life, both personally and professionally.

As he advances within the military and is given more and more leadership responsibility, he begins to have troublesome questions about the decisions coming “down,” along with the ongoing, less-than-honorable actions and events he witnessed while serving on the front lines against Russia. Not until he meets the astute and savvy secretary with connections, Alexandra Mollwitz, that he begins to act upon his inner conflict, and his life begins to change in ways he could never have imagined.

Presented in multiple points of view of the von Feldburg family members, cohorts, and supporters, Schrader breathes life into some of the historically documented events occurring in Germany before and including WWII that forever changed the world. Each of their voices reflects their social status, belief systems, and loyalties—and their angst and fears as change turns evil and evil turns deadly.

Traitors For the Sake of Humanity, based upon documented historical events and personal memoirs recounted to the author by individuals who lived through that time.

In the end, the importance of this book cannot be underestimated. Traitors for the Sake of Humanity rises as a critical, provocative, and timely book that perhaps we would all benefit from reading. The Glossary and documentation alone impress.

Helena P. Schrader puts a human face on some “monsters,” and exposes the monster faces of others. Kudos, Dr. Schrader.

August 11, 2021
MATAMOROS: Civil War Adventure, Romance and Espionage in an Old West Border Town by James Kahn – Action/Adventure Romance, Westerns, Western Romance

With the American Civil War as a grisly backdrop, James Kahn shines a light onto the real old West in his latest novel, Matamoros: Civil War Adventure, Romance and Espionage in an Old West Border Town.

The tiny Mexican town of Matamoros becomes a haven for traders, traitors, ex-slaves, and card sharks. Bring the war into the mix with Northern and Southern agents, both self-appointed and official, and the result is perfect for plenty to go wrong.

Clayton Wilkes owns the Brave River Gambling Emporium and can smile and shoot almost in the same breath.

One day he demonstrates his wit and daring for all to see as he confronts a man suspected of cheating at a high-stakes card game. In so doing, he draws the attention of a Northern operative.

Enter Isaac, an ex-slave and Clay’s closest confidant. Isaac’s talented and educated, able to speak the King’s English when called upon, or revert to slave jargon when necessary. After all, southern slavers and rebel spies lurk about in Matamoros and its Texas counterpart, Brownsville – and freed slaves can never be too careful.

There are fortunes to be made at the large shipping port. Those aligned with the rebel cause trade raw cotton to Europe and receive payment in much-needed weaponry. But they’re not the only ones making money. Clay’s riches stand to be boosted by the conflict flaring around him, including Napoleon III’s interest in conquering and controlling Mexico.

In the middle of it all, Clay’s personal life transforms with the unexpected return of his erstwhile partner in scams.

The alluring Allie, a self-made woman with whom Clay shares romantic but somehow inexpressible feelings, arrives on the scene. Allie employs her fascination with the art and science of photography, séances, and other con artistry as she and Clay try to get a handle on what’s going on in Matamoros.

In his varied roles as author, medical advisor, TV and film producer, and novelizer of iconic films like “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom,” Kahn comes well qualified to identify and explore the dichotomy that makes the best stories even better.

The action in this broad panorama of love, crime, and war rises to a cinematic fever pitch as plot streams swirl and splash. Matamoros brings some real people to life, notably John Wilkes Booth, styled as Clay’s distant cousin. In the end, Kahn’s deftly drawn “postscript” begs for a sequel.

There’s nothing quite like a shady border town to spark larger-than-life characters onto new adventures. The ever-evolving goings-on in Brownsville on the American side and Matamoros across the river, in such tight sequence at such a significant time and so masterfully arrayed by Kahn, will excite and engage all fans of Americana, Westerns, and Romances. What can we say? It’s a thrill a minute set for success – and one book we can highly recommend. Matamoros won 1^st Place in the CIBAs, Laramie Awards for Americana Fiction.

One more thing, for a multimedia experience, Kahn has produced a Matamoros CD of original Americana music, each track about one of the characters in the novel. Click here to find out more.

August 2, 2021