Tag: Thriller

Book Review: A Gentleman of the Old School

Erin Penn

Amazon Cover

A Gentleman of the Old School: A Santore Security Novel (Book 1) by Katie Pressa

BOOK BLURB ON AMAZON

Edie Bayette has it all: looks, money, and loyal friends. A top-notch attorney, she relishes a good legal fight and works pro-bono for a local women’s clinic. But when a one-night stand delivers more than Edie bargained for, she must make a choice: let it wreck her life, or take a huge risk by falling in love for the first time.

Mack Santore served his country with honor and retired to start his own top-notch security service. Celebrities love him because of his intelligence, experience, and discretion. But Mack’s current client—a women’s clinic targeted by terrorists—puts him on edge. Then, the most beautiful woman he has ever seen walks in. And he can barely breathe.

When Edie catches Mack staring, her whole body thrills with a dangerous desire. But despite their attraction, how can a relationship ever work? Mack swears by love and commitment, two things Edie only knows about from the dictionary.

Can Mack and Edie overcome the odds? Will they even have a chance to try?

MY REVIEW

Wow, that is one of the best romance stories I have read in a long, long time. 

Strong characters – woman and male are true equals and the best at their jobs. Their jobs were important to the story. Background characters were amazing, friendships real, action solid. Well-developed backstories and reveals. Thriller subplot kept everything going.

Plot line of romance. Plot line of personal growth for each of the main characters. Plot line of thriller. Plot line introducing characters for other books in series – so subtle you don’t even notice it. 

Perfect example of how lawyers act. Perfect examples of how security firms act. Yes, the story had politically touchy subjects: family care clinics, poor sections of town being treated worse, blacks being questioned harder than whites, … But these are characters seeing it from their side of the world. Right or wrong, these are how people in these situation see these things.

Everything mixed well. You want to know how it is done. Ms. Pressa brought it all to the table.

Book Review: Series – Central Galactic Concordance (1-3)

Erin Penn

Book Cover from Amazon

Overload Flux (Central Galactic Concordance #1) by Carol Van Natta
Minder Rising (Central Galactic Concordance #2) by Carol Van Natta
Zero Flux (Central Galactic Concordance #2.5) by Carol Van Natta
Pico’s Crush (Central Galactic Concordance #3) by Carol Van Natta

SERIES REVIEW

A rousing combination of science fiction space opera and romance, Central Galactic Concordance has a bit of everything without burying the flavors. In addition, many of the characters have diverse racial and ethnic traits, something Ms. Van Natta strives for. This series is a hidden gem, and should especially appeal to fans of Sharon Lee and Steve Millers Liaden Universe. Each of the books within the series works well as a stand-alone.

 

Book Cover from Amazon

Overload Flux (Central Galactic Concordance #1) by Carol Van Natta

BOOK BLURB ON AMAZON

Two loners fighting to stay alive discover they must now save the galaxy.
The only vaccine for a deadly galaxy-wide pandemic is missing … and the only ones who may be able to find it are a powerful talent on the verge of a meltdown, and a security specialist hiding her extraordinary skills in a menial job.

Brilliant investigator Luka Foxe must act fast if he’s going to save the civilized planets of the Central Galactic Concordance. For as a pandemic sweeps across the galaxy, someone is stealing the vaccine. To make matters worse, Luka’s hidden mental talents are out of control, leaving him barely able to function in the midst of violence and a rising body count. The convoluted trail leads to a corrupt pharma industry and the possibility of an illegal, planet-sized laboratory. In the face of increasing threats, he must rely on an enigmatic, lethal woman who has secrets of her own.

Mairwen Morganthur hides extraordinary skills under the guise of a dull night-shift guard. The last thing she wants is to provide personal security for a nova-hot investigator, or to be plunged into a murky case involving sabotage, treachery, and the military covert operations division that would love to discover she’s still alive. Worse, she knows that two more deaths won’t bother their enemies one bit. Their only hope for survival is to share their darkest secrets. With everything in their universe at stake, can they learn to trust one another?

 

MY REVIEW

A Science Fiction Romance combined with Police Procedural, and the first book of the ongoing Central Galactic Concordance series made up of stand-alone stories, some concentrating on romance and some concentrating on the police procedural. The series is at four manuscripts at this time of this review and growing – three novels and one novella.

The books has a solid mix of the typical well-loved tropes of Sci-Fi and Romance. Two damaged people not looking for love but finding love which may heal them. Bonus – The love interest couple never had a moment of “should I share my feelings” angst or a moment of staged arguing to keep them apart – the circumstances of the book provide enough barriers the author does not go with the very annoying brainless high-school angst in full grown adults. This is not an instant love romance but a slow discovery with the investigation into a murder taking the primary stage. In addition, both of the adults are intelligent but have different forms of intelligence to support each other in the Police Procedural part of the story.

Other tropes include one of the romantic leads having military background, an interstellar conspiracy which will continue to unfold as the series continues, and one of my favorite tropes of psychic powers (with unique worldbuilding in how this universe deals with and uses those blessed/cursed with the powers). About halfway through the book, another beautiful sci-fi trope is added with a trip in a space ship – both the combination of the long boring travel between the stars where the romance has a chance to grow further and then the flaming reentry to the next portion of the dangerous investigation into murders on the new planet.

Ms. Van Natta has taken a lot of the typical stuff we all love about science fiction, romance, and murder mysteries, and blended it well to create a new universe for what is a promising series based on the debut novel.

 

Book Cover from Amazon

Minder Rising (Central Galactic Concordance #2) by Carol Van Natta

BOOK BLURB ON AMAZON

A covert agent asked to train a prodigy telepath discovers he must first keep the boy and his mother alive in a gleaming city full of danger.

An injured agent on the galactic capital planet must evade whoever is killing off his covert interrogations unit and make an impossible choice–save his own skin, or save an innocent woman and her prodigy son. Can he discover who is subverting the mission of the Citizen Protection Service, before they fulfill their dark plans?

A millennium into the future, the Citizen Protection Service tests all children for minder talents, and recruits the best. Injured agent Lièrén Sòng is recovering from a near-fatal crash in Spires, the gleaming capital city of the galaxy. He should be preparing to return to interrogating criminals for the Citizen Protection Service, but he’s made unexpected friends with a woman and her son. The boy has strong telepathic talents similar to Lièrén’s, and his attractive mother makes Lièrén long for the stability of family.

Imara Sesay works hard as a road crew chief in Spires and part-time bartender to provide for her son Derrit. For him, she even breaks her ironclad rule never to get close to a customer, when she trusts Lièrén to teach her son how to control his growing telepathic talents.

However, new fatalities in his covert unit make Lièrén suspect he isn’t a lucky survivor, he’s a loose end. He should pull away from Imara and Derrit to keep them safe. But when the local CPS Testing Center shows a more than usual interest in the boy, Lièrén must make an impossible choice–protect the boy, or run for his own life. Can he stay alive long enough to save Imara and her prodigy son?

 

MY REVIEW

A science fiction romance with political thriller mix in. The romance takes time to develop (no Instalove here) – the hero is recovering from a major injury and is staying at a hotel until he recovers enough for his next assignment, and the heroine does not do transients for love interests because of her son. It takes forever for their first kiss, but the wait of this sweet romance is worth it.

While waiting for the romance to develop, the political thriller sci-fi plot holds center stage. The second book of the Central Galactic Concordance, Minder Rising works great as a stand-alone. With very little overlap with the first book, Overload Flux, the story introduces an entirely new group of characters giving a reader a new place to stand while looking at the political issues within the Concordance universe.

I really love and identify with the hero Lieren because of his naivety and trust. He believes the best about the universe and it has bit him. I hope we see more of him as he recovers from having the blinders removed from his eyes. He is a hero worth meeting.

And the heroine is awesome as a single mother working two jobs – one at a hotel bar and the second as a construction gang leader. The description of the see-through walkways and roads for the crystal capital city (tourist attraction) which she works on as part of the road construction crew set this firmly in the sci-fi area while also grounding the fantastic with a dose of reality.

Diversification – Hero is Asian descent and Heroine is African descent (sci-fi situation).

 

Book Cover from Amazon

Zero Flux (Central Galactic Concordance #2.5) by Carol Van Natta

BOOK BLURB ON AMAZON

A couple investigating murder on a cold planet discovers their first challenge is staying alive. Forensic investigator Luka Foxe has begun a new life with Mairwen Morganthur (Overload Flux), and left his troubled past far behind. Only a plea from his old friend and mentor can lure him back to investigate a violent crime scene frozen in an ice cave. Unfortunately, Luka’s old friend knows far more than he’s telling, which could get them all killed, even with security specialist Mairwen on their side.

An unexpected ice fall reveals a hidden lab buried deep in a mountain and the find of a lifetime. Now someone is trying to make sure those secrets stay frozen in time, even if it means more deaths …

Hang on for a space opera murder mystery in the far reaches of deep space.

 

MY REVIEW

The novelette, Zero Flux, from the Central Galactic Concordance series revisits the characters introduced in Overload Flux. I think the novelette works as a stand-alone, but since I read this book the day after I finished Overload Flux I can’t really judge.

A science fiction police procedural with some action-adventure on the side and a breath of romance (our main characters are still deeply in love).

This time the murder mystery centers around a cold case – literally and figuratively – the murder happened over 20 years ago and has been frozen in-situ thanks to the ice planet. Several red herrings keep the reader guessing as the story unfolds, combine nicely with the danger of working in the ice and snow. Winter doesn’t like its frozen vignette being investigated and dumps several additional challenges on our hero and heroine; the cold is only the beginning.

Ms. Van Natta is doing a good job of slowly introducing readers to the Concordance universe; the worldbuilding is getting better each manuscript.

 

Book Cover from Amazon

Pico’s Crush (Central Galactic Concordance #3) by Carol Van Natta

BOOK BLURB ON AMAZON

Trouble comes to paradise when a serial killer chooses a galaxy-famous college campus for his hunting ground. A galactic security specialist expects a quiet vacation visit to his daughter’s college campus. Instead he finds himself in battling for the safety of the students, with old friends and an ex-military squad-mate fighting at his side. Can they find a cunning serial killer before he finds his next target?

When ex-military sniper and current personal security specialist Jerzi Adams visits his daughter Pico’s quiet college on the paradise-like planet of Nila Marbela, he doesn’t expect emergency evacuations and rogue robots. Nor does he expect to renew a friendship with former squad-mate.

Explosions, sabotage, and assaults used to be Andra De Luna’s daily routine, but she gave it up for a professorship at a prestigious university. Now she’s flung back into that world, with an entire floating campus of students to protect.

When the hunt for a cunning serial killer leads Jerzi’s old friends Luka and Mairwen (Overload Flux) to town, there’s trouble in paradise as the body count starts to rise. Either the world of academia has gone from merely cutthroat to downright deadly, or more sinister forces are in conflict, with the campus as a battleground. Without an improvised miracle or two, no one’s going to make it out alive.

 

MY REVIEW

The third novel (with a side trip of a novellette as 2.5) in the Central Galactic Concordance has two romances – one older couple and one younger couple, plus both couples from the previous novels of the series. While this book could work as a standalone, I found the multiple story threads hard enough to follow knowing the complete background.

I think Ms. Van Natta bit off a little more than her present authorship skill set allowed her to work. The battle scene focuses in on each of our various characters at least once – so the battle jumps around between the seven main characters plus one of the villains. Also several minor characters are tracked, though their POV is not used. A very ambitious attempt by Ms. Natta and comes just shy of actually pulling it off seamlessly – the seam definitely shows on this one. It’s still worth buying the story even with the clunky – because she keeps the battle action constantly moving.

On the plus side, the series has had four couples and I love the fact all of the characters are different people. Even with the massive battle scene, each character’s strength and weaknesses are used. Ms. Van Natta uses each character well. Even better, some of the couples have the female be the strong, military member of the couple with the male being the thinker, and other couples have the male being the protector and the woman being the brain. And for every romance in the Concordance Universe, even with the psychic powers, we get to see the romance develop – no Instalove.

Oh and I *love* the practical engineering class and the related projects … plus the real world applications during the battle. This added bit perfectly brings the science fiction to the fantastic forefront while simultaneously grounds the story in reality.

I look forward to reading more of Ms. Van Natta’s Concordance Universe. Each book has been a different emphasis, a different romance, and another slow reveal of the worldbuilding in the Universe.

Flash: Red Knife

Erin Penn

Image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The knife in his hand dripped blood. Not his. Never his. He leaned against the wall heaving for breath after a hard run. A run he didn’t remember. He turned his head listening for pursuit.

Whatever did this. Did this to others, to him. Had kept him safe so far. Bin doubted this will always be the case. Five times since he turned sixteen he found himself in a new place, a new city, weeks passed unexplained. Bloody knife in his hand.

A dead woman appearing in the news the next day from stab wounds. Important women. Rich women. With even more important husbands or fathers. Women he had never met. Never knew. He had learned each of their names since.

Seo-yeon, Ji-yoo, Min-seo, Da-eun, and Chae-won.

He had traced them on the internet. Their too short lives.

Bin wanted to scream for help.

None would come. No help for him.

Maybe for the next person. His next victim. If it was his victim. Or was he her victim? Her unwitting killer.

Six times now. He could stop it at six. The last victim, never have the next victim. Learn the new name, the one whose blood is on the knife, and stop it at six.

He bent down and washed the knife in a puddle. It had rained here last night.

Checking himself for blood, some covered his hand, run down from the knife, some sprayed across his shirt long enough ago to turn from bright red to brown. New clothes would be required to go much further.

Bin set the knife to the side and checked his pockets. A ticket for a train leaving in four hours, a cardkey for a hotel. Based on experience, it would be nearby. He crept to the edge of the alley and looked up and down the street. A glowing neon sign, one of many in the mist of the early morning, matched the name. He picked up the death knife and made for the shelter whatever drove him had arranged.

In the room, a new set of clothes laid on the bed. An empty beat-up suitcase sat beside the bed.

Bin wrapped the knife in his bloody shirt and the bloody shirt in the clean pants before taking a shower. Red ran down the drain for a few moments before coming completely clean.

While dressing, he flipped on the television. In seconds, he had his new name Sa-rang. Wife to a city councilman in Baltimore; he had recently tossed a hat in to run for State Senator. Sa-rang didn’t have any children; mercifully, none of the women did.

They switched to the weather and the date showed. Four months, the longest time so far. He had missed his birthday. Thirty-six years old last month.

He shrugged into the hoodie and pulled the suitcase behind him, exiting the hotel room. At the desk, he turned over the card-key. The clerk reminded him he qualified for the hot breakfast.

Not knowing where the next meal would come from, he took advantage of the food and ate his fill. The train wouldn’t leave for another three hours. After eating, he checked at the desk to see if they had a courtesy bus to the station. They did.

The train took about four hours, including an engine switch in Philadelphia before reaching Palisades Park in New Jersey. Home sweet home.

All he had to do was find a place to lay his head.

That would take money.

Bin walked the four miles to the bank, leaving each piece of questionable clothing in bits along the way, the knife already disposed of in Philadelphia. Only the suitcase remained when he went into the bank.

He waved at his normal bank agent and sat down to wait out the lunch crowd.

“Mr. Jung, how are you doing?” Karen asked after she cleared those waiting. “Need to get into your box again?”

“Yes ma’am.” He stood and followed her, pulling the suitcase. Before entering the vault, she confirmed his identity with the passwords they had set up. He never awoke from his fugue state with any identification. The hotel room had a false ID which got him home, usually on a train, but as identity checks have tightened, the last two trips had been on a bus.

Signing out the box, he saw that he had last opened it on April twentieth, the last day he remembered. Inside the box was his wallet and all his identification like normal. With that in hand, he went to the cashier to find out how much money had appeared in his account this time.

Just the standard $150,000.

Da-eun had been a quarter million, but she had lived in Los Angles, on the other side of the US.

He transferred enough onto his debit card to cover rooms at a flea hotel which charged by the week and some food. No point in getting a real apartment. It will be years before he lost time again, maybe, but it would happen.

He was too weak to confess. Bin knew he couldn’t fight it. He would wake up again with a red knife and a seventh name to learn.

(words 867; first published 3/22/2020)

Geeking Science: Fashion Meets the Surveillance Age

Erin Penn

From the Reflectacles Kickstarter

So after writing the Dark Web Trope Editing Rant in September, my paranoia is running higher. Just a little.

Did you know that there is a whole Fashion subset to avoid the surveillance cameras everywhere?

Here are some Fashion Statements to say something about the person wearing them, either tin-hat-paranoia or they-really-are-out-to-get-you. The accessories could make for some exciting additions to a near future sci-fi or a contemporary thriller.

  1. Makeup and Hair – Asymmetrical is the key. Bright splotches of color hair. Cover or obscure the eye with spikes and decorations. Squares with high differentiation of coloring – black and white. Jewels applied randomly to the face, especially the nose and cheekbones. Gorgeous and disturbing to a species hard-programmed for symmetry. The machines also freak out a little. (See cvdazzle for examples.)
  2. Pattern Recognition Disruption Scarfs – Put on a lacy scarf with dots or mini-faces. For example, the HyperFace scarf has 1,200 facial shapes to blow the surveillance camera software to bits.
  3. Health masks – Those face masks people are wearing to prevent transmission of disease. They may be keeping other transmissions and invasions at bay. Popular among protesters around the world, especially when holding a gathering near suppressive government buildings.
  4. RFID Blocking Wallets – With the credit cards being RFID chipped now, pick up a wallet to keep someone from reading accessing the credit just by talking down the street beside you.
  5. Metallic Fabric Jackets (with or without hoodies) – But the RFID and microchips go beyond just the wallet, dogs are chipped, medical history may be on chips soon, and some medical machines already are microchipped and can be programmed for injections. Pick up a metallic jacket to keep criminals from scanning the microchips … or reprogramming them.
  6. IR Privacy Eyewear – Full infrared (IR) protection on the sunglasses prevent surveillance cameras from getting eyeshape, one of the most important aspects of facial recognition. A bonus is manufacturing the frames to be extra reflective – this makes the wearer more visible at night when crossing the street while also completely screwing with the camera’s ability to see the person’s face.
  7. Antiflash Clothing – Prismatic metallic ink which interferes when paparazzi beat on a celebrity with flashbulbs. Suddenly their greatest tool of humiliation destroys the very picture they are trying to take. Also great for those days when a politician, or ordinary citizens caught up in a mess, takes a walk of shame before proof of innocence or guilt is established. Also useful for the next company party with the open bar; no pictures, no proof.
  8. Infrared Ballcaps – The brim of the cap shines an IR light on the face, making it too bright for surveillance cameras to see. Perfect for those late night run to Walmart, and you don’t want to get dolled up in an anti-surveillance fashion statement.

Bibliography

Bacchi, Umberto and Suliman, Adela. “Face masks to decoy t-shirts: The rise of anti-surveillance fashion”. Reuters. 2019 September 26. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-tech-fashion-feature/face-masks-to-decoy-t-shirts-the-rise-of-anti-surveillance-fashion-idUSKBN1WB0HT – Last viewed 11/13/2019.

CV Dazzle. “Camouflage from face detection.” cvdazzle. 2017 August 22. https://cvdazzle.com/ – Last viewed 11/13/2019.

Dobush, Grace. “Privacy by design: How fashion combats surveillance”. The Christian Science Monitor. 2017 January 27. https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Passcode/Security-culture/2017/0127/Privacy-by-design-How-fashion-combats-surveillance – Last viewed 11/13/2019.

Hern, Alex. “The fashion line designed to trick surveillance cameras”. 2019 August 14. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/13/the-fashion-line-designed-to-trick-surveillance-cameras – Last viewed 11/13/2019.

Hu, Jane C. “When Will TJ Maxx Sell Anti-Surveillance Fashion?” Slate. 2019 August 15. https://slate.com/technology/2019/08/facial-recognition-surveillance-fashion-hong-kong.html – Last viewed 11/13/2019.

Jacobs, Bel. “How what you wear can help you avoid surveillance.” BBC. 2017 March 20. https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20170320-how-what-you-wear-can-help-you-avoid-surveillance – Last viewed 11/13/2019.

Reflectables. “IRpair & Phantom – Privacy Eyewear.” Kickstarter. 2019 November. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/reflectacles/irpair-and-phantom-privacy-eyewear – Last viewed 11/13/2019.

 

 

Writing Exercise: Start at the End

Erin Penn

Photo by Daniel Lincoln on Unsplash – Adjusted by Erin Penn

Have you ever read a story out of order? Sometimes authors lead with the end of the story and the mystery is how the person ended up in that situation. “Dude, where’s my car?” and “The Hangover” are just two recent movie examples where people wake up after a night of debauchery wondering what happened to them and have to backtrack the night.

For writing, often a writer will drop readers in the middle of the action and in the second chapter backtracks a couple hours or days and fill in the backstory once the reader is hooked.

Today’s writing exercise is to create an out-of-order flash. Normally, this would be frowned on because the flash medium is too short for backstory and timeline confusion. But breaking the rules to learn a new skill is okay.

Often when setting up a story in this manner, the first action is set in present tense and the remembrance portion is written in past tense. When the action catches up to present, the verb tense returns to present tense.

Example starts: “I stopped digging when the hole was deep enough.” “Blood is not my color, but at least it was washing out.” “The hangover wasn’t bad until I moved my head into the sunlight. When I opened my eyes, I realized it wasn’t sunlight.”

Remember the mystery is how the person got from a “normal” state to their present craziness when writing timelines out of order. This focus keeps the reader on the hook until the end.

WRITING EXERCISE: Write out three things that will happen in a flash in time order, and then write the flash with #3 as the first piece of information presented.

***

My Attempt

Flash Title: Too Big
I stopped digging the hole when it was deep enough. Mud covered me from head to toe which covered the blood. I hoped the mess would wash out, but burning everything remained an option. I had a stack of wood under a lean-to close to the house from clearing underbrush this summer which would provide a good firestarter. I didn’t want to run around starkers at home, but I’ve done that before chasing kids when I was younger and fitter and the young escape artists were slippery from their baths. Somehow the clothes would be taken care of before I went inside.

I wasn’t tracking evidence inside my home.

I guess I should start at the beginning.

Yesterday was normal. Wake up, take the kids to school, drop the spouse off at work, run errands, do the laundry at home – walking the dog between loads and picking up after the kids and setting up for dinner and paying bills and the hindered of other tasks needed to keep a house of six people alive. I work weekends while Samantha works weekdays, that way someone is always home with the kids. It does mean the two of us don’t spend time together much, but considering number five is on the way, we do spend enough time together for some things.

Then I got a call from school. Mardi had gone missing with two other children off the playground. I don’t remember getting to the school, but the time between me hanging up the phone and signing in at the office was four minutes. The school is five miles away.

She was still missing when I got there, police were arriving behind me. One of them may have been following me for speeding. Don’t know, don’t really care, but I didn’t get a ticket for it. The two other missing kids were eleven year-old girls, dark hair, dark skin, just like my Mardi. She takes after her mother but has my high cheekbones and narrow nose from my Native American ancestors. The two other girls were also mixed races.

The police didn’t like that pattern at all.

Well, long-story short, since this story should be about 500 words. The police have the bodies of the human traffickers. Well, the low-level guys.

Their boss is too big to fail.

The clothes burned fine once they caught fire, and Sam hosed me down once I got out of the backwoods. Not my woods, mind, the woods owned by the guy too big to fail. One of my buds who wasn’t able to help me today already is calling in an anonymous tip about a suspected body being ditched.

Too-Big-to-Fail is going to have a bad day tomorrow. Worse than mine was today.

(words 459, first published 02/25/2020,