Styled in the cooling off days of the Reagan era and the still heated Iran Contra imbroglio, Epstein’s Pancake features a street-wise hero afflicted by PTSD and new to the spy vs. spy game. Viet Nam vet Rob Price is not having an easy time with civilian life when a friend introduces him to a mysterious man who wants to hire him for some low-level, well-paid courier work in France – dropping things off, meeting people in airports, that kind of thing.
Of course, it’s espionage and despite how careful Price normally is, he doesn’t hesitate. He has little to lose, though he will gradually realize that even someone with little to lose might find something worth saving. In this case, possibly, the entire world. As he gets more tightly drawn into more secretive levels of the work, Price begins to wonder who the good guys really are. He has one trustworthy supporter, a martial arts teacher name Jennie whose instruction might save his life as he takes on an entire military-industrial complex.
At the core of this multi-layered plot is a scientist playing with something that still seems ultra-futuristic, though it has been around for longer than most people realize: artificial intelligence. In this case, AI is represented by a plate full of genetic mush connected to wires and computers – the eponymous pancake that multi-nationals, dictators and even the leaders of the free world want to control. After numerous near-death experiences and constant switchbacks that force Price to re-learn his playbook almost daily, he will identify the villains in the piece and force their hand. But not without cost to his psyche.
Rostaing, an award-winning author, paints a remarkable picture of the times and the setting of this action-rich, intelligent tale, and is able to convey it in rich language. Doubtless, he has accessed many sources in piecing together a novel that seems entirely accurate down to small but significant details, from everything that was on TV in the late 1980s to how the bigwigs were thinking.
He inserts some believable behind-the-scenes vignettes and a few well-chosen opinions without weighing the narrative, and he has an excellent ear for dialogue. In Price, he has brought to life an enjoyable mix of John le Carré’s cool-headed Smiley and Dashiell Hammett’s hard-bitten Sam Spade.
With international intrigue, a new twist on almost every page, life-threatening danger, and a hard-living hero with a soft heart, Epstein’s Pancake is a smart story solidly in the spy thriller genre that’s bound to garner a loyal readership.
Epstein’s Pancake won First Place in the 2016 Clue Awards for Bjarne Rostaing.
Owen Haskins is returning to his childhood home on fictional Cedar Island (which has an uncanny resemblance to Whidbey Island for those readers in the know) with his seven-year-old son Ian so they can have a new start. Ian has had trouble being bullied in his old school, and Owen is worried that new teacher, Faith Russell, may not be up to the job of helping his vulnerable son. Of course, Faith and Owen clash, while simultaneously being attracted to each other, but painful experiences in their past initially keep them from acting on their growing feelings for one another.
Sam had been a curious, resourceful child growing up in a family torn apart by a contentious past. At a very young age, he’d discovered a fascination with killing. Now almost an adult, he’s anxious to find his little sister who he’s sure is living somewhere with their mother. The mother who had abandoned him. Although he was young when they were separated, Sam remembers his sister well, including the cute green ribbons she always wore in her hair. Now author Kara Wolfe shows readers what Sam really thinks in As the Ribbons Fall.
The M&M Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in the genre of Cozy, Classic, & Not-So-Cozy Mystery Novels. The M&M Book Awards is a genre division of Chanticleer International Book Awards (CIBA) and Novel Competitions.
Brock Harker, World War II fighter pilot returns home to the Pacific Northwest on leave. He’s searching for a little peace once he finds his half Japanese wife who vanished while he was away. What he finds is Murder Beside The Salish Sea by author Jennifer Mueller, who artfully pulls Brock into an intriguing plot that hides the darkest of secrets.
