David Bishop (7)

This is a novel about an average woman caught in a web of mystery. Someone suddenly wants her dead.

Linda Darby is a resident of Sea Crest, Oregon, a get-away-from-it-all sort of place. She makes her money by day trading, and takes care of her sexual needs with a series of one-night stands. She is friends with an older woman named Cynthia Leclair, who works at a very strange place called Smith and Co. Cynthia perpetually declines to answer Linda's questions about her work, visitors are show more forbidden, there is no regular mail delivery, etc.

This is an absolute gem of a book. It has everything that a suspense thriller story needs; shadowy political/intelligence operatives, fake identities, lots of money and a bit of sex. The author shows throughout that he really does know what he is doing. show less

Eleven years ago, General Whittaker, now retired from the Joint Chiefs of Staff, bought an alibi to keep his grandson, Eddie, out of jail after being charged with the murder of Eddie’s pregnant fiancee. No one else was ever charged in the case. Now, as he nears the end of his life and is thinking about his legacy and his estate, he wants to know if Eddie actually committed the crime. He hires former police officer Matt Kile, currently an ex-con and an author, to investigate the original show more crime.
THE ORIGINAL ALIBI offers a cast of colorful characters including but not limited to Matt’s all-around-assistant Axel, the general’s daughter Karen, and his butler, Charles. Eddie, who generally keeps his distance from the family, is a self-centered hedonist. Thirty-five-year-old Karen, who is extremely attentive and devoted to her father, is described by a quote from Count Tallyrand “In order to avoid being called a flirt, she always yielded easily.”
Matt’s investigation leads him to several possible perpetrators and motives on a well-scripted plot.
David Bishop has a delightful way with words. Some of my favorite descriptions are:
“His ears reached out from his head like they were expected to catch fly balls rather than words.”
“The general ran a hand through his thin pepper-colored hair, which each day was surrendering more of its territory to salt-colored hair.” “Before six, the sun started sliding into the room, doing its thing, the way cream softens black coffee.”
He writes about the way his view of his parents changed as he grew. Their original perfection is replaced by anger at them letting him down and turning to other teens for knowledge. “ By the age of sixteen, Mom and Dad’s image was totally tarnished and Hoppy (referring to his Hopalong Cassidy lunch box in elementary school) was out of my life except for watching him on TV.”
He portrays the General as a Law-and-Order type – “America has become much too soft. We need more swift justice....There is a certain discipline society surrendered when we gave up the immediate effectiveness of firing squads and public hangings.” and wonders “Why is it us cops lead the league in divorce, alcoholism, and suicide?...[We] begin to think everybody’s a lowlife.”
In a tribute to authors and book buyers, Matt writes “Today’s book buyers are asked to pay too much because of all the layers that stand between the author and the reader. I’m going to start self-publishing. I’ll use a work-for-hire publisher so I can control my rights to my own books. That way I can set lower prices, make a good living and protect my readers from getting ripped off.”
Even though the characters and plot were somewhat stereotypes, the book was worth reading. I will likely check out David Bishop’s other books.
This book was a free Amazon download. show less

money-laundering, sniper, law-enforcement, murder-investigation, Arizona

I like to read homicide detective fiction because the good guys really are and the bad guys get hosed whenever possible. Like in this book, but along the way are twists, turns, and more red herrings than a Bergen fishmonger. Personal lives of the law enforcement involved as well as those surrounding the victim are explored as well, rounding it out to a very fine read.
Narrator Tanya Eby was excellent as usual!
I won show more this audiobook in a giveaway! I really win! show less

A Supreme Court Justice is found dead in his chambers. Because of his age, a heart attack is suspected but when a second Justice is found with his throat cut and a Federal Reserve Governor meets an untimely death in a c ar crash, the President wants an investigation and calls on his friend, Jack McCall who is a special Director awt the CIA. McCall creates a special taskforce with members from the CIA, FBI, and MPD and together they work to find who is threatening the elite members of the show more Supreme Court and Federal Reserve. Commander LW of the American Militia to Restore Representative Government sends his threats and demands for the non-elected elite to stand down or he will kill them all.

The nation is frightened, no one wants to be a nominee for the vacant position, putting their names on the hit list. With the assassination spree continuing, resignations occurring and no replacements, the Supreme Court cannot sustain a quorum. Will the nation fall into anarchy before the killer is found and stopped?

This book kept me on the edge of my seat throughout, wondering if this ever happened in the real world, how we as a nation would react - would we demand immediate results or realize that someone that managed to accomplish something this devious would be difficult to track down and capture? It was well-written and seemed well-researched and the characters were well-developed. My only nit to pick was the change in viewpoint was sometimes too jumpy, but once I realized it had changed, there was no problem. This could have been related to the download format from Net Galley. But all in all, a great read.

Thanks to Net Galley and Oceanview Publishing for giving me the chance to read a great book. show less