Chanticleer Book Reviews

Tag: Randall Krzak

FROZEN CONQUEST by Randall Krzak – Eco-Thriller, Conspiracy Thriller, Action & Adventure

Frozen Conquest by Randall Krzak is a thrilling and intense conflict between the cold of Antarctica and the blazing ambition of those seeking global control, fusing the issues of power, greed, and survival into a high-stakes adventure.

The icy edge of Antarctica serves as the center of a sinister organization, Diablo Corps. The ruthless leader, Walter Brown, threatens global mayhem if his aspirations for power are not met. With technological efficiency and the ability to disrupt critical infrastructure, Diablo Corps is poised to leverage its capabilities against the G7. Soon, an anonymous climate-related warning is sent out, with events such as the hacking of the London metal exchange proving to authorities the true weight of that threat.

Such dire actions demand an immediate answer. A classified team of specialists is called upon to gather at Ramstein Air Base. With naturally skilled leader Craig, sharp and observant Evelyn, and the humor and humility of Rufus and August, the promising recruits form the Bedlam Quick Reaction Force (QRF) and venture out into the peril of a frozen land.

On another canvas of the story, the scientific research vessel RV Aquavit is tasked with conducting climate change studies in Antarctica. Courageous climatologist Carine and the Scandinavian Protection Agency (SPA) parallel the QRF as heroes pitched against the demons perpetuating world chaos. Dodging obstacles around every corner, they take on not only corporate greed and environmental exploitation but also treacherous sabotage.

Themes of unchecked power and betrayal lie deep in the narrative.

The characters resist and even turn on former allies, reflecting how tyranny often creates conflict between those who submit and those who rebel. A broader struggle between morality and ambition builds on these ideas, such as in Brown’s use of environmental concerns as a facade for cyber terrorism. With grandiose goals of reshaping the global system and addressing climate change, Brown personifies the darker side of ambition blinding one to ethical considerations.

Real-life debates on corporate greenwashing and genuine intentions find space through the fictional discourse.

Brown hijacks environmental concerns to seek profit and power. His intentions, appearing to be rooted in environmental activism, ultimately turn an altruistic cause into a danger to global geopolitical stability and humanity. While characters like Brown’s assistant, Chris, embody the moral drive of humanity against powerful evil forces, the story also suggests the importance of aligning individual efforts with collective action and systemic solutions.

Krzak weaves a complex web of action and cutting-edge technological intrigue, balancing quick, fast-paced scenes with cliffhangers and slower introspective sequences. With its atmospheric writing, Frozen Conquest caters to the readership of dark, intense settings.

Frozen Conquest by Randall Krzak is a story wrapped in the undercurrents of greed, treachery, resistance, and resilience of the human spirit. It warns how the river of ambition, without the banks of morality to guide it, can flood and destroy everything in its path.

January 27, 2025
REVENGE: A Bruce and Smith Thriller Book 2 by Randall Krzak – Global Thrillers, Suspense, International Crime

Randall Krzak raises the bar of the thriller genre with Revenge, the action-packed second book in the Bruce and Smith series.

Javier retires from the Army and his despised desk job at the Pentagon. He lived for the action of working in the field, so as a civilian, he tries to build an international investigative agency called The Brusch Agency. Thanks to his connections from the military, he can do exactly the work he wants, with the people he chooses.

Krzak sets up this book meticulously, building conflicts in the first several chapters. Javier needs to apply for his concealed-carry permit and private investigator’s license while finding office space for his agency, but his plans are staggered as his condo is broken into and trashed. Despite his investigation and that of law enforcement, the culprit remains a mystery.

Despite a rough night on his slashed mattress, he focuses on business, getting his permit and license. When he starts receiving a series of threatening emails, he realizes the B and E job on his condo wasn’t random, and he enlists his friends and fellow Brusch Agency investigators to uncover this threat.

Krzak masterfully uses AJ, Javier’s romantic interest, to ramp up the heat as their relationship grows, but also the tension when her life is put on the line.

AJ helps Javier as a partner, and Krzak’s smart and sexy female lead can more than hold her own. She helps Javier find the new office building, and within a day, it’s his. He begins to build his team, with AJ first on the list, but she hasn’t yet committed to giving up her gig at the CIA.

The target on Javier’s back only gets bigger as his agency grows.

The Brusch Agency gets its first overseas client and job from the DEA, while juggling the threat to Javier.

Javier’s team, including Snakes from book one in the series, The Columbia Betrayal, works to uncover the details of Islamic State terrorist trainers who worked out of Mexico. They discover that the person seeking revenge on Javier was a survivor of the Mexico attack.

As they begin work on their mission in Bermuda for the DEA, Krzak shifts his plot into high gear.

The team starts to unravel the case, putting together names in the local drug mafia and discovering where the drugs are delivered.

Krzak deftly weaves between Javier and his team’s work on two investigations. All the while, Javier is growing closer to AJ, but as much as he wants to take their relationship to the next level, he can’t until he finishes these missions and resolves the danger to his life.

This thriller draws on the precision of a retired military author to build a world of international intrigue, one well-versed in international diplomacy and foreign military aid.

Krzak uses these details to create a fascinating novel. His characters will draw readers in with their development, and commitment to keeping one another alive. Lovers of Lee Child and Tom Clancy will appreciate Krzak’s world-building, the detailed scenarios, and the daring rescues put forth by his heroic characters.

Revenge by Randall Krzak won First Place in the 2022 CIBA Global Thriller Awards for High Stakes Suspension.

January 12, 2024
MISSION: ANGOLA: Xavier Sear Thriller, Book 1 by Randall Krzak – Global Thriller, Action, Suspense

Rescuing the son of an Angolan official turns convoluted and deadly in Krzak’s latest thriller, Mission: Angola.

Peter Mwanga, the son of Angolan cabinet minister Colonel Mwanga, is a doctor at the Christian Aid Mission DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo). While he converses with foreign missionaries at a village hospital, a raid nearly overtakes the area, and Congolese Marxist Jonah Alimasi and his rebels kidnap Peter.

Almost four thousand miles north in Lisbon, Portugal, government official João Regaleira calls Xavier Sear—an American ex-CIA operative and the best man in his wedding—inviting him to celebrate their twentieth anniversary. Soon afterward, he receives word from an old friend that Theo Mwanga, Peter’s father, is asking for assistance in negotiating his son’s release. Hours later, the first sign of danger surfaces when João and his wife are accosted by a pair of thugs.

The attackers are apprehended, but the threat is clear. Further conversation with Theo convinces João that he should go to Angola only with Sear by his side.

João heads out first to meet with Theo, and Sear leaves a day later. Each experiences dangerous situations en route to their rendezvous point. Regrouped, the troupe encounters a heinous scene—a sign of more involvement from perilous political factions, including Russians and a diamond mine.

Sear has no choice but to devise an alternative strategy to locate Peter, one that comes with significant risks. He readies the group, outnumbered by their enemies, their chances of survival from the rescue mission slim at best.

Award-winning author Randall Krzak introduces a new thriller series featuring a spunky yet brusque ex-CIA operative.

Mission: Angola opens with sharp contrast as scenes morph from the horrific massacre of a poor village to the serenity of João and his wife discussing plans for their upcoming 20th anniversary in posh surroundings.

Sear’s entrance comes at the invitation of João, and the remaining cast follows. Krzak envelopes his characters by carefully accentuating nuances of culture, food, and political strife. Using appropriate terminology, Krzak captures the sights, sounds, and smells befitting both Portugal’s beauty and Angola’s rough and hot terrain.

Krzak’s writing style is nothing less than sure.

With a cast covering an array of personas—from well-developed to highly elusive characters, Krzak’s storytelling naturally flows to create short, concise, cliffhanging chapters. Chapters identify locations, such as Fortaleza de São Miguel, Luanda, Angola; Lisbon, Portugal; and the rebel camp in the DRC, to name only a few. Those sites provide readers with behind-the-scene segments between the various factions and Sear’s rescue plan, which build unrelenting tension up to the story’s apex and beyond.

Mission: Angola has enough twists, turns, and suspense to satisfy thriller fans and feed their expectations for the next in the Xavier Sear series.

Mission: Angola by Randall Kzark won First Place in the 2021 CIBA Global Thriller Awards for High Stakes Suspense.

September 14, 2022
COLOMBIAN BETRAYAL: A Bruce & Smith Thriller: Book 1 by Randall Krzak – Suspense Action, International Mystery & Crime Fiction, Terrorism Thrillers

Randall Krzak opens Pandora’s box on the world of Columbian cartels and Islamic terrorists in his latest thriller, Colombia Betrayal: A Bruce and Smith Thriller, Book 1.

On the first page of Krzak’s thriller, we are thrust into the dangerous world of a wealthy family, straddling the legitimate world of hotels and sugar cane fields and the illegitimate world of drugs and violence. Krzak places us in Medellin, Columbia, with the patriarch of the Zapata family, Jesus Pedro Zapata, on his way to a luncheon at his country club. With his eldest son by his side, he is ambushed and killed in a fiery explosion.

With her father and older brother murdered, Olivia Perfecta Moreno’s life is turned upside down, as she becomes the heir to the family fortune and businesses. She is determined to take charge, but she has large shoes to fill and a target on her back. With her son, Alonzo, her useless husband, Pedro, and her bodyguard Ramon on her side, she begins the change of power. But Krzak shows us the cracks in her armor, and we soon realize that Olivia shouldn’t be trusting any of the people she trusts most.

In a CIA office in Langley, Virginia, Agent AJ Bruce receives her next assignment.

Robert Lintstone, head of the counter-terrorism division, introduces Colonel Javier Smith, the advisor for the mission. A loner, she finds Smith attractive, but she refuses to be impressed by his Silver Eagles.

Lintstone informs them:

“There are indications the Islamic State is attempting to gain a foothold in our territory. They’ve already infiltrated a number of countries around the world. We’re trying to ascertain the validity of the intel before we make a move.”

This intel takes AJ and Javier to Columbia, where their search for the terrorists becomes embroiled with the Zapata families’ drug operations.

AJ and Javier dodge bullets and try to stop the terrorists before crossing the Mexican border into the US.

In a surprising twist of fate, Olivia ends up in the hands of Lintstone. Alonzo tries to rescue his kidnapped sisters as AJ and Javier unravel the whereabouts of the terrorists, saving Olivia’s daughters in the process. Olivia tries to escape captivity in Gitmo, and Krzak keeps us enthralled as we turn page after page to find out what will happen next.

Fans of Jack Slater and Barry Eisler will love this first installment of the Bruce and Smith series.

Krzak’s deft world-building skills and masterful orchestration of terrorists, CIA operatives, and the Columbia drug cartel will have readers panting for more. Since 2017, Krzak has cranked out six award-winning military and political thrillers, and this latest contribution sparkles as well. Uniquely qualified to build the worlds we find in Columbia Betrayal, Krzak’s experience as an Army veteran and a civil servant living abroad inform his rich, detailed description of the terrain and the architecture – right down to the weaponry used in the covert operations he describes in detail. Readers can’t help but be sucked into his page-turning stories.

Readers can follow AJ and Javier as they embark on their next assignment and thrilling adventure in book two, Revenge.

Colombian Betrayal won 1st Place in the CIBA 2020 Global Thrillers Book Awards for High Stakes Thrillers.

October 20, 2021
The KURDISH CONNECTION, Bedlam Series #1 by Randall Krzak – Military Thriller, Terrorism Thriller, Political Thriller

International writer Randall Krzak addresses one of the world’s saddest ongoing tragedies in The Kurdish Connection, a thriller about the plight of the Kurdish people and a desperate plan to free them from their fate.

In a world awash with refugees, perhaps no greater tragedy exists than the ongoing fate of the Kurds of the Middle East, roughly 30 million sect members spread between Iraq, Iran, Syria, and Turkey. Connected by language, religion, and history, this group has no country to call their own. The Kurds have been the subject of several attempts by international agreements to help them create a haven, the most recent in northern Iraq’s no-fly zone. Meanwhile, all four host countries have ruthlessly suppressed Kurdish hopes and dreams politically and especially militarily.

Among the most vicious suppression efforts were those of the late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, who used deadly sarin nerve gas against them, most notably in the village of Halabja, in which up to 5,000 Kurds perished and another 10,000 were wounded.

The Kurdish Connection takes us deep inside that struggle.

Two young Iraqi Kurds, Dersim and Ismet, scavengers by trade and refugees from Halabja with searing memories from their youth of Saddam’s gas attack, accidentally stumble on a large cache of sarin gas canisters leftover by Saddam’s army. The pair are stunned by the possibilities of what can be done with it. They, in turn, make their finding known to a group of Kurdish mullahs who find themselves torn by the possibilities of how the weapons can be used.

Eventually, they agree that the sarin gas might help them free a powerful mullah named Muhammed Baziyan, imprisoned for many years under tight security by the Turks. The Kurds believe that this one man could be the leader to pull them together and unite them as a single voice.

Meanwhile, half a world away, a new international counterterrorism group called Bedlam assembles in Washington D.C. to explore a rumor from on-the-ground intelligence that an Iraqi sarin gas cache exists. Its goal becomes a frantic effort to locate the canisters, disable or destroy them, and stop them from falling into the wrong hands.

With few intelligence assets on the ground, Bedlam assigns their operatives to travel to Turkey, Iraq, and Syria. Using various identities such as amateur archeologists, members of MSF (Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors without Borders), and cultural tourists, they use their limited information plus sophisticated chemical detectors to try and locate the deadly cache.

At the same time, the mullahs make plans to use the gas to disrupt Turkish military forces and other pressure tactics, including kidnapping foreigners to show the world some of the brutal tactics used by military forces against Kurds. In the most recently reported event, they want to show the world how Syrian troops viciously put down a peaceful Kurdish demonstration over bakery prices, which the Syrian government claimed was an attack instigated by the Kurds.

The mullahs’ overall plan is to instigate several near-simultaneous attacks in Turkey to draw out Turkish military forces and disguise their main effort, to free the mullah Baziyan from his well-guarded Turkish prison. Using sarin gas to kill Turkish troops seems like a good plan, but no one wishes to harm civilians. Not everyone agrees with the deployment of sarin gas.

The action is set against the exotic, fairytale-like landscape of Capadoccia, Turkey, with its soaring natural towers, and Gobekli Tepi, an archeological dig of an ancient temple built 6,000 years before Stonehenge. Equipped with sophisticated chemical detectors, built James Bond-like into their gear, the Bedlam teams ready themselves for their mission. A further refinement of Bedlam’s plans is to substitute phony sarin containers for their more dangerous counterparts.

Randall Krzak delivers an exciting cat-and-mouse game between the Bedlam team, suspicious Kurds, and equally suspicious Turkish government spies.

The Kurdish Connection soars in the detailed accounts of towns and villages, the people there, and even the weaponry and vehicles used. Readers will find themselves in the middle of the action as the Kurds successfully bomb a Turkish oil field, terrorize a soccer stadium, and stage a murderous assault on the prison where the mullah is kept. Krzak takes us into the dank caves and sewers where the Bedlam teams go to locate and sabotage the horrific sarin canisters from being used by anyone.

Above all, The Kurdish Connection offers readers a compassionate look at one of the world’s most intractable social conflicts, wrapped in the pages of a thriller that will keep readers glued to its pages until the final sentence. The Kurdish Connection is the first book in Krzak’s Bedlam series. Please read our reviews of the following books by clicking on their titles: Dangerous Alliance and Carnage in Singapore.

September 23, 2021
CARNAGE in SINGAPORE (The Bedlam Series Book 3) by Randall Krzak – Global Thriller, Political Thriller, Political Suspense

Carnage in Singapore, the third volume in Randall Krzak’s Bedlam counterterrorism thriller series, takes the team to the Far East for action against Muslim terrorists with a ripped-from-the-headlines plot to destroy Western influence by any means.

The terrorists’ idea unfolds as simple, even ingenious. Terrify residents and non-Muslims in major cities such as Jakarta and Singapore with a series of spectacular bombings designed to kill as many people as possible. Follow up with kidnapping ambassadors from Great Britain, Australia, and the United States – with such ruthlessness that Western-leaning nations will cease repression of Muslims, curtail training police and soldiers who hunt Muslim terrorists, and end support for anti-terrorism activities around the world.

The plot grows into actionable items among different Indonesian terrorist groups working together – if somewhat uneasily – with a common goal.

Their scheme calls for launching near-simultaneous multiple attacks against unsuspecting citizens, destroying the illusion of safety in daily life. By making the attacks in this way, they cripple the police and other civic services. The first strike uses rockets launched from a small obscure offshore island. The rockets explode in a crowded grandstand watching a Formula One Grand Prix auto race in Singapore. Other sites bombed or strafed include an amusement park, a traffic-laden bridge, and a Chinese cathedral.

All schemes execute without a hitch. All hit their targets with devastating accuracy. Hundreds are either lost or become hostages. Next comes the kidnapping of the ambassadors.

Some Indonesian groups come under suspicion. The ruthless Detachment 88 interrogates the suspects, but their brutality yields dead suspects instead of interrogated suspects.

Into the melee comes Bedlam Charlie, an international team of anti-terrorist experts trained in all phases of investigation and apprehension. Their mission? Simple – to stop the bombings and free various prisoners in the attacks. They must deal with a mélange of bad investigations and spies within the police ranks who thwart their moves and even place team members in mortal danger.

The political motives behind the governments involved in deploying Bedlam Charlie don’t lack complexity. Will the Indonesian police accept their help? Will the governments behind Bedlam Charlie allow the team to get involved and risk the political outfall if they fail?

The terrorists come well-armed and tactically highly skilled, able to break through even the most sophisticated protection schemes to kidnap their high-profile targets.

Naming real sites as the intended targets of the terrorist attacks helps to separate this book from several others of this genre.

If a novel about terrorism in New York City named the Marriott Hotel on Times Square, Nathan’s Hot Dogs, and Yankee Stadium as successful targets, the gut-level effect here would be similar. The fictional terrorists’ logic matches actual attacks on cities and nations around the world including our own.

The novel also explores the aspirations and the politics within the terrorists’ ranks. Various factions and individuals find themselves looking for their own moment of glory as they both complete their missions and compete for attention.

Thriller fans will devour Krzak’s modern us-against-them take on storytelling. Of course, what makes Carnage in Singapore such a strong novel is its plausibility. It’s terrifying and terrific at the same time – and definitely holds its own among modern thriller authors of today. Randall Krzak took home 1st Place for Carnage in Singapore in the 2019 CIBAs Global Thrillers Book Awards.

Read our review for Dangerous Alliance, here.

August 14, 2021
DANGEROUS ALLIANCE Randall Krzak – Political Thriller, Action/Adventure, Thriller/Suspense

Dangerous Alliance, the second volume in Randall Krzak’s Bedlam counterterrorism thriller series, takes the team to the Middle East to disrupt an unholy alliance between North Korea and Somali pirates to hijack oil tankers in exchange for weapons.

Talk about a thriller ripped from the headlines!

Once again, in severe straits because of the maniacal rule of its dictatorship, North Korea finds itself running out of oil. It turns to its “friends” throughout the world—Russia, China, and Iran—but it finds that those friendships have limitations. Shipping oil to North Korea is one. Desperate for answers, the country’s Dear Leader turns to one of its own, an ambassador, and threatens him with the decimation of his family unless he comes up with an answer. Pushed to the limit, the ambassador comes up with a wild but plausible scheme: hire Somali pirates to snatch oil tankers sailing from the Red Sea through the treacherous Gulf of Aden. The ships get repainted, their transponders turned off, and countries friendly to North Korea allow the purloined oil to reach its final destination.

As world events demonstrate, stopping the Somalians is no easy task. But an international intelligence group headquartered in London, calling itself Bedlam, plans to dispatch members of its elite, multinational strike force to the Middle East to fight the pirates and restore order to that part of the world. Neither Bedlam nor the North Koreans know each other’s plans add to the certain knowledge that the two forces will clash in a major confrontation.

That’s one of the threads in this multilayered fully engaging novel, the second in the Bedlam series of thriller novels.

Two other stories run parallel to the North Korean oil hijacking. One involves Soo, the North Korean ambassador, his aide Kim, and their attempts to stay alive by fulfilling the Dear Leader’s wishes knowing that they face certain death if they fail to do his bidding. And the North Korean leader doesn’t help things, changing the nature of the offer to the Somalian pirates at the last moment and ultimately cheating the pirates when and if they actually receive the promised weapons.

The other story follows the Somali pirates as they plan and execute their schemes to secure the tankers. Part of their plan involves creating bloody diversions to keep police forces engaged in fighting acts of local terrorism and focusing less on the pirates’ activities in the waters off East Africa. Their diversionary attack on the Somalian capital of Mogadishu is fierce, well-executed, and gripping reading as the pirates race from site to site, blowing up key structures in the city to keep police attention on terrorism, not on piracy on the high seas. Things, however, do not go smoothly. Diversions go tragically wrong, leading a few to suspect a traitor among them.

The theme of “Who can you trust?” hangs heavily over the actions of the North Koreans, the Somalis, and the forces of Bedlam itself. A few significant characters turn out not to be who readers think they are—don’t even try to guess who they are—and the twists add an extra layer to the tension of this well-crafted novel.

Krzak’s unique knowledge of this world shines throughout this book. The missions undertaken by both good and bad guys feel authentic; the locations feel real, the political and social conditions reflect the author’s obvious understanding of these worlds. The story doesn’t rely on distractions such as one single character to follow; i.e., no James Bond, no George Smiley, or a love affair, a hot-blooded night between the sheets to offset the action. Dangerous Alliance relies on solid storytelling with events so plausibly terrifying that readers may not be able to sleep – for weeks.

If you like your action hot, if you enjoy thrillers with some relationship to the real world, if you enjoy well-written complex stories with some good twists and turns, Dangerous Alliance deserves a place on your reading list. This title won 1st Place in the 2018 CIBAs, Global Thrillers Awards.

August 6, 2021