Tom EppersonReviews

2021 movie #103. 2006. Just read the 9th in the book series. My library didn't have the series but has the movies. I didn't expect much from the made-for-TV flic but it was surprisingly good. LA homicide cop takes job as small-town police chief to escape from his rotten life.

‘There they stood, ranged along the hillsides, met
To view the last of me, a living frame
For one more picture! In a sheet of flame
I saw them and I knew them all.’
(Robert Browning)

At 6am one morning Roberto, an investigative journalist in an unnamed South American country, receives a phone call: ‘In ten days, Roberto. You must leave the country. Or else you will die.’ Over the course of the next few days he realises that he is being watched, and when the police detective that Roberto had told about the threat ends up dead, he knows that he is in trouble. Planning to leave to be with his girlfriend Caroline, who is visiting her family in Saint Lucia, he starts to clear out his life and pack up. His investigative instinct, however, kicks in as he learns of a potential massacre in the region of Tulcán, and so he postpones his departure and, accompanied by his photographer friend Daniel, sets off on a journey into the heart of darkness.

The novel is a brave attempt to explore the generalities of corruption and political mass-murder, and the lack of specifics allows us to read it as a wider critique of injustices throughout the world. As Roberto, Daniel and their guides penetrate deeper and deeper into the jungle in search of the truth the whole atmosphere becomes claustrophobic, tense and threatening. With the clock relentlessly ticking (x days until the day Roberto is to die) there is a sense of the inevitable, too, as they reach their destination, the massacre at El Encanto, the site of the ‘dark tower.’ The deliberate nod to Browning’s poem in the novel’s title gives us a framing device and, with the Conrad feel to it as well, there is a tight focus in the forward-moving story. This is further enhanced by the present-tense narrative, which keeps the action moving forward and adds a sense of the ‘now’ to the whole thing.

Overall this is a decent enough thriller, with enough political resonance to make it relevant. I did find myself skim-reading at times, however, just to get through the story. There is a twist of sorts at the end, but it’s fairly obvious how it will all end (no spoilers!). A good read, but not a great one, so a decent 3 stars.

Fathom a jungle country in South America.
And the hopelessness of any endeavour for change.

At least here's an attempt at describing at full detail a possible attack on corruption and crime: Roberto, a journalist on his quest for truth, receives a death threat and decides to give in and leave his country within ten days. But not after investigating one last hint.

The military is planning, so his informer, a so-called 'Sri Lanka option' for the area of Tulcán. In plain English: the whole population of a vast jungle region ist to be annihilated in order to allow mining companies the smooth exploitation of the rare mineral coltan which is needed in more or less every modern IT device.

Roberto fights the jungle, escapes the military thugs, gets all the hot information to lay bare the atrocities commited by his own government but finds his nemesis in his own long-term friend. A friend who is forced by threat to colloborate. With the regime.

A well-structured page-turner that gave me the creeps imagining the dreary desperation which must become every truth-seeking soul in a highly crooked country. Even more so in the jungle - what a fantastic allegory! Five stars!

This was a raw, stark read set in Hollywood of the 1930s amidst gangsters run by "the kind one". The main character, Danny, lost his memory but knows he had been one of the best shooters in the gang with the nickname"two gun Danny". He is an obvious favorite of the boss. For Danny, things don't measure up as he is horrified by the brutal lifestyle he is a part of. This book had great characters, a sad undertone and frequent bursts of violence. I found it a captivating but often difficult read.

Set in an unnamed fictional South American country [probably an amalgam of several real ones], The story follows Roberto, an investigative reporter, from his receiving a telephone call threatening his life in ten days if he doesn't leave the country, to his planning to join his fiancée in the Virgin Islands, to his following one last Big Story of massacre in the jungle. He and a photographer friend, Daniel, set out to do just that that. An odd assortment of guides take them into the midst of evil. They witness ghastly, bloody scenes of killing and destruction against people living in a fishing village with Daniel photographing an esteemed general of the army leading a Special Ops branch of the army and Roberto busily taking notes. One more stop: a hacienda where most of the inhabitants had been murdered by the "Black Jaguars", a paramilitary group. The excitement and tension build until the ending, which did seem a disappointment. There were other parallels to Robert Browning's Childe Roland poem besides the obvious ones of the novel's title and the dark tower [standing for the hacienda; the hacienda did have one] on the cover. I thought the cover very striking. The book did a great job of creating and maintaining the atmosphere. But the reprisals were much too grisly for my taste and there was too much sexual talk, action, and innuendo.

Recommended for those who enjoy political thrillers.½

Roberto, a journalist had been mysteriously given a deadline to fly out of the country. Assuming it as the worst threat yet, he does his best to wrap things up and move on and start a blissful life with his longtime girlfriend. This also means turning his back to the usual stories he loved to write. The ones that placed him under his current dilemma. But before ultimately moving away from the life (career, family and friends) he had always known, he decided to take a final step back and takes on a story he believes must be told.

“And in this country, suspicion is often all it takes to get you killed”.

This book touches the atrocities and dangers people from remote places, and those who want to tell their story are facing against those who are in power. For truth, anyone could be dead and no one is safe. It was slow at the beginning, but I hang-on due to how it was written. There were several times when I thought something supernatural is a part of the plot but it was always dismissed. To be honest it could have been more interesting if it just did. To me, the romantic parts fell short it wasn’t convincing, the explicit parts of it were unnecessary and gory parts were repulsive, so be ready. Despite a lot of these nuisances I managed to finish the book and liked the ending, unsettling and abrupt.

I received an e-ARC of this book under Library Thing Reviewers Program for an honest review.

A very disturbing, page-turner political thriller novel.

The theme presented in this story represents the many kinds of injustice and violence that happened or are still happening in parts of the worlds and how brave persons are still fighting to disclose the truth.

This fast paced novel will take the readers to the world full of perils, where strangers can be true friends and true friends can be enemies; where the distance between dangers and yourself can be less than one breath away, and a lot can happen in a minute. The author has a way of making each character distinct and lively without giving away too much, one of them be the funny and terrible Daniel.

With detailed, vivid world building and a touch of romance, this novel is a very interesting read.

Highly recommended for fans of thriller.

I received a ARC of this book in accordance with the terms of Librarything Early Reviewers program.

Roberto is a young left-wing journalist in an unnamed South American country who one morning receives an anonymous phone call telling him he has ten days in which to leave the country or he will be killed. 'Fair enough' he thinks, and makes plans to join his girlfriend and her family on a Caribbean island. But of course rather than doing the sensible thing and leave when he can, he decides he must first follow up on one last big story deep in the Amazon jungle. Once it gets going the book is a fast paced and atmospheric thriller; but it's a shame the characters needed to make so many poor decisions along the way in order to advance the plot line. Epperson is a script writer and it certainly shows in the writing. A reasonable read overall, but I must admit that I did find the fact it was written in the present continuous tense rather annoying.

This ebook version was provided to me as an ARC under the LT Early Reviewers program in exchange for a fair and honest review.½

Terrific read set in 1930's Los Angeles. Danny Landon (known in the criminal underworld as "Two Gun Danny") has been recovering for the past year from an attack that has left him without any of his former memories. He's returned to work for mobster Bud Seitz, known ironically as "The Kind One". But Danny no longer seems to have the stomach for the violence and fear that the others seem to revel in. Bud assigns Danny to bodyguard his newest girlfriend Darla, but things get complicated when Danny develops feelings for her. Although there were scenes of extreme and graphic violence in this book it also contained a lot of heart, which brought to mind Charlie Huston's novels. This story had a great premise, a great setting, some great characters and fine writing with some nice twists in the plot. I enjoyed it a lot and thought it was unique. Four and a half stars.

This is a good read, set in LA 1930s not long after Prohibition.
Main character is Danny Landon he works for a gangster called
Bud Seitz whose empire is crumbling.
Bud asks Danny to keep an eye on his girlfriend Darla.
Danny slowly falls in love with Darla.

Bud's other men become suspicious of Danny they think he is up to something.
Danny also has lost his memory and cant recall his own past.
It turns out Danny is Bud's son.

Things come to ahead Danny decides to rescue Darla and run away with her along with Danny's neighbour Sophie a young girl who is having a horrible time at home.