BOOK SPOTLIGHT: "Black Ice: The 66 Degree Conspiracy" by Max Morgan

An international conspiracy to gain control over vast Arctic oil and gas resources touches close to home in Max Morgan’s riveting spy thriller Black.

As a senior intelligence officer with the Norwegian Police Security Service, Magnus Ose enjoys both personal and professional success. But his loving family and his career suddenly hang in the balance as he attempts to solve the mysterious deaths of several of his assets.

After discovering that confidential industry data has been stolen from oil and gas executive Finn Aspen, Magnus vows to identify the thief. But his efforts prove too late when Aspen is found shot in the head.

Shortly after, Norwegian diplomat Alf Evenson is found dead in an “accidental” apartment building fire—the second of Magnus’s assets to die in twenty-four hours.

Magnus’s investigation uncovers an elaborate network of spies and double agents that involves assets from North America, the Balkans, Western Europe, Russia, and the CIS.

It’s only as he gets closer to the truth that he realizes he might be too late—and that the web of lies he’s trying to penetrate might have already infiltrated his work…and even his own family.

Max Morgan is a former government official with insight into the workings of security intelligence issues. Having traveled and worked around the world, the author is currently employed as a private consultant. For the author’s outstanding work, Morgan was awarded the State Security and Intelligence Cross of Merit by a friendly country.

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BOOK REVIEW: "The Demeter Code" by Russell Brooks

Crack The Code And You'll Save Lives...But Knowing It Exists Could Get You Killed. 

When two American embassies in northern Africa are bombed, CIA operatives, Ridley Fox and Nita Parris, are assigned to track down the perpetrators. However, when their top asset is killed in a failed op, the agents suspect that there may be a new threat. Their search for the truth puts them on a collision course with a powerful multinational--which will go to extreme lengths to bury its criminal activities. However, the agents soon learn that someone with a personal vendetta against that company not only knows their secrets, but will expose them in a way that could result in the largest single-day attack against America.

Spy novels are not my thing. While I watch NCIS and Spooks a lot, I've never been one to really sink my teeth into a spy novel. I find them to be slow and emotionless. Not so Russell Brooks' The Demeter Code.
From page one you're engaged in action, danger and mystique. Attacks with knives, guns and physical force dominate the first two chapters, and it gets better from there.
I love Agent Parris. I love that she's a woman who can kick butt and look good doing it. I think her inclusion will make more women pick this book up. Think Ziva from NCIS played by a young Viola Davis. That's how cool she is.
Agent Fox we met in Mr. Brooks' short story trilogy, Unsavory Delicacies. He's just as much of a badass here as he was in this two unforgettable stories. Reminding me of DC Comics' Deathstroke, he gets the job done with amazing skill and grace. If there can be beauty in violent death, he brings it.
There are moments where the violence is very heavy, like the brutal murder of a white collar worker and his pregnant wife, do if you're unable to handle brutality, be wary as you start to read this.
A nearly flawless attempt. I'm very eager to read more from Mr. Brooks!

4/5--exciting!

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BOOK REVIEW: "Unsavory Delicacies" by Russell Brooks

While I'm more used to short story collections having five or more tales, Unsavory Delicacies by Russell Brooks doesn't need more than the three he included to be worth your time and money.
It begins with an ex-Mossad agent about to assassinate a man giving her sensitive information and ends with the same man infiltrating a Russian Mafioso's club and finding a strange surprise. In the middle, you have a disturbing story about a chef who avenges his honor on the food critic who cost him his job once before.

Revenge. Espionage. Death. What more do you need for a half-hour's worth of entertainment? The stories are well-written and very well planned out. They're actually little unsavory delicacies in themselves! Like I said, they're eerily disturbing, like Rod Serling could have written them.
There are no monsters, there's no sex, nothing that people think they need to incorporate into their work. It's parts humanity in its most animalistic forms: self-preservation, vengeful and secretive.
A great read!

4/5--delightful!

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Official site

BOOK REVIEW: "Never Say Die" by Bill Carson

Nick Harland has teamed up with Andy Ryan, a special forces/ MI5 operator and the pair are tasked with tracking down a rogue SAS soldier who is on the loose and creating havoc across London in revenge for his unjust imprisonment. But the destruction that he is causing is all part of an elaborate deception which is designed to mask his true intentions. Harland and Ryan are now in a race against time to find him before he carries out one of the most daring, outrageous and audacious crimes of the 21st century. 
Along with all the mayhem and tension created by the hunt for the SAS man there is a secondary story running parallel with the main one and this part of the story is unconnected to the main theme and remains so until the last chapter. Who is the mysterious unknown man found in a field in Essex with a gunshot wound to his head? The unconscious man is barely alive and is rushed to hospital where he undergoes emergency brain surgery and after a long period of recuperation he wakes from the coma. 
The police are anxious to interview him as in the field where he was found were a dozen dead bodies riddled with bullet holes. They don't get the chance to interrogate to him as he decides to abscond from hospital. The stranger has near total memory loss and has no clue who he is or why he'd been shot and the search is now on to find his past life? And he's anxious to find out why someone wanted him dead?

As an avid Doyle reader and NCIS watcher (not to mention the BBC's MI:5 starring Richard Armitage), I love mysteries set around a lot of action and suspense. Never Say Die by Bill Carson delivers a whole lot of suspense and danger within these pages.
Nick Harland is a likable character, Andy I could go either way. This is not really a character-driven story, but rather a plot-driven story. I mean that as a compliment. Rarely can you find a great spy novel driven more by plot than by the spies themselves. Carson wrote a great thriller with interesting components not usually seen together in the same book.
The reader is enthralled and intrigued by the mysterious man who has no memory. The reader is appalled yet can't help but be sympathetic to Steve Dark, the assassin gone rogue. And you certainly will wonder what on Earth one has to do with the other. A great mystery keeps you guessing and o  your toes, and Never Say Die does just that.
A great plot, well-written with enough mystery and action to keep you reading well into the night make Mr. Carson a writer you HAVE to check out!

4/5--a page-turner!

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