The Good Spy Dies Twice by Mark Hosack @markhosack #Suspense #Thriller #PageBurner

Blurb:

Jake Boxer, investigative journalist and host of the conspiratorial news show Bullseye, is in serious trouble. Not only is his soundman murdered by Russian intelligence agents while reporting on a secretive New World Order, but his network cancels his show, leaving Jake humiliated and spiraling into a deep dark depression.

Years later, a condemned murderer, who claims he was abandoned by the CIA, and who starred in an early episode of Bullseye, is finally executed for killing two supposed Soviet spies back in the 1970’s.

Jake Boxer, still trying to piece his life back together, is on his honeymoon in a posh ski resort in the Alaskan mountains when he gets word of the inmate’s execution…and the old killer’s final words: “The good spy dies twice.”

Those five words, seemingly meant for Jake, draw the ex-reporter out of his forced retirement and into a complex and deadly global conspiracy involving his newlywed wife, the secretive New World Order, and the hotel’s hundred or so “guests.”

Everyone is a suspect.

Described as James Bond in a Stephen King novel, The Good Spy Dies Twice is the explosive first book in the Bullseye Series. Part spy thriller, part whodunit, this fast-paced novel introduces an exciting new hero, the intrepid, conspiratorial journalist, Jake Boxer.

About the Author:

Mark Hosack is the author of The Good Spy Dies Twice (Book 1: The Bullseye Series), and Identity (Simon & Schuster). He also wrote on the web series Sequestered for Sony Crackle, the screenplay for Give ’Em Hell, Malone (Thomas Jane, Ving Rhames), and he both wrote and directed the award wining independent film Pale Blue Moon. Mark lives in Los Angeles with his wife and a brood of gremlins who insist on calling him Dad.

Sign up for Mark’s newsletter at: http://markhosack.com/newsletter. Follow Mark on Twitter @markhosack or find him on Facebook - facebook.com/mark.hosack.

Review:

The Good Spy Dies Twice was a pretty good read. At times it was difficult to tell what was real and what Jack Boxer was hallucinating, but as he followed the bodies and the clues uncovering a conspiracy that reached back to the 1970s, it was difficult to tell the good guys from the bad. He wasn’t even sure he could trust his bride. After all, she’d been in love with his soundman who was killed in Russia. Why had she chosen a remote mountain in Alaska that had ties to the Cold War? Why did she insist on skiing a double black-diamond trail knowing he wasn’t that good? Where did she disappear to the rest of the day?

When Jack was injured in a ski-lift accident, I found it somewhat difficult to believe some of the feats he mastered with a broken back. I was amazed he didn’t manage to become at least a paraplegic. But then, I guess it depends on the type of fracture the vertebrae sustained, and he didn’t get up until after a surgeon removed the splinters from his spine. Still, even popping pills and fighting the pain strained a bit of my credibility.

At any rate, if you’re looking for a rather eerie thriller, The Good Spy Dies Twice is it.

Author Website:  http://markhosack.com

Heat Rating:  R

Length:  336 Pages

Prices:

Print:  $15.95

Digital:  $4.99

Hardcover:  $29.95

Buy Link:  https://smile.amazon.com/Good-Dies-Twice-Bullseye-Book-ebook/dp/B01IMZZ39M

Thanks for visiting.

Three Wrongs by Charles Bowie

Blurb:

Sean Donovan is doing all right; he has two offshore bank accounts and an American one as well and all three are filling up nicely. His network of clients know his business plan: he is willing to acquire whatever rare or inaccessible product is needed, be it the security plans to an art gallery, a rare Etruscan goblet or a recorded conversation from a former American President. And he will steal it and deliver it to them, no questions asked nor answered.

But he is becoming dissatisfied. In addition to the physical wear and tear inflicted on his body by adversaries, he is now becoming weary of the toll his newly-discovered conscience is exacting from these highly illegal exploits. A series of lies to his most recent client has caused him to think about the impact of his deeds and he doesn’t like how it makes him feel. An idea begins to form; what if he was to undo his last three wrongs? And what if he nevertheless wants to benefit from turning over this new leaf?

This story follows Sean Donovan as he travels from Bucharest to London to Montreal and New York. Will he repent his wicked ways? Will he quit the business before those who he has wronged catch up to him? Will he discover that three wrongs don’t make a right?

Review by Rochelle Weber:

Sean Donovan is the best at what he does—theft for hire—when he has all the facts in the case, when he is not mistaken for someone else, and when it’s not personal. In his latest cases, everything is awry. Thugs keep getting in his way. When he tries to stop them from killing a gypsy boy in Bucharest, he finds himself in possession of a bag of stolen passports, one of which puts him onto the radar of yet another bad guy. His next job is to steal the lucky necklace belonging to an actress. His client is a spoiled brat of a teenaged starlet; the victim is a beautiful, smart, funny, nice woman who only removes her lucky pearls at bedtime.

I received an Advanced Review Copy that had not been fully edited, so I can’t comment on the few editorial glitches I found. I’m sure they’ll have been caught when Mr. Bowie went through the galleys. What I can say is that Three Wrongs grabbed me at the beginning and kept me burning through my Kindle right to the end. Despite his chosen profession, I like Sean Donovan. Retired spies have a very specific set of skills and there aren’t too many things they can do with them. Donovan chose a lucrative and (mostly) safe profession. In many instances, he replaces what he stole with duplicates so the owners won’t even know their property is gone. I look forward to reading the second book in this series, AMACAT. Meanwhile, I highly recommend Three Wrongs.

Length:  230 Pages

Prices:

Print:  $10.95

Digital:  $5.95

Buy Links:

Print:  https://museituppublishing.com/bookstore/index.php/museitup/mainstream/three-wrongs-541-detail

Digital:  http://www.amazon.com/Three-Wrongs-Donavan-Thief-Hire-ebook/dp/B00BACRDMU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1433093644&sr=8-1&keywords=Three+Wrongs+%2B+Chuck+Bowie

You’ll notice we always include the publisher’s buy link. That’s because authors usually receive 40% of the book price from the publisher. Editors and cover artists usually receive about 5%. When you buy a book from Amazon, Barnes & Noble or another third-party vendor, they take a hefty cut and the author, editors and cover artists receive their royalties from what is left. So, if a book costs $5.99 at E-BookPublisher.com and you buy from there, the author will receive about $2.40. If you buy the book at Amazon, the author will receive about $0.83.

Downloading the file from your computer to your e-reader is as easy as transferring any file from your computer to a USB flash drive. Plug the larger USB end of your chord into a USB port on your computer and simply move the file from your “Downloads” box to your E-Reader/Documents/Books directory. You can download your books onto your computer using “Save As” to a “Books” file you create and sort them into sub-folders by genre, author, or however you wish before transferring them to your e-reader. That way, if there’s a glitch with your e-reader, the books are on your computer. And, your author will be happy you did when he/she sees his/her royalty statement.

Thanks for visiting. Julie, Donna, & Rochelle

The Outfit by Richard Stark

Blurb:

You probably haven’t ever noticed them. But they’ve noticed you. They notice everything. That’s their job. Sitting quietly in a nondescript car outside a bank making note of the tellers’ work habits, the positions of the security guards. Lagging a few car lengths behind the Brinks truck on its daily rounds. Surreptitiously jiggling the handle of an unmarked service door at the racetrack.

They’re thieves. Heisters, to be precise. They’re pros, and Parker is far and away the best of them. If you’re planning a job, you want him in. Tough, smart, hardworking, and relentlessly focused on his trade, he is the heister’s heister, the robber’s robber, the heavy’s heavy. You don’t want to cross him, and you don’t want to get in his way, because he’ll stop at nothing to get what he’s after.

Review:

The Outfit is a mystery novel written in third person narration and set in the U.S. in the 20^th century days of mob activity. An interesting element is the bad guy vs. bad guy factor, comparable to today’s gang wars. I was not able to closely identify with any particular character in the book as the entire theme is quite foreign to my own reality. However, I found it to be an intriguing look at a world outside anything I know, with a game of trying to sort out the lesser of two evils. It is a fast-paced, easy read with vivid detail and a lot of action. It takes the reader on a cross-country trek with some interesting twists and turns. The defining point in the book for me is when one character discovers the Truth of Self-Interest and realizes it is part of every human being.

This book would not be on my list of “must reads” but I would recommend it to adults looking for a quick and lively mystery with a peek into the workings of the underworld.

Length:  224 Pages

Prices:

Print:  $14.00

Digital:  $14.00

Buy Link:  http://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/O/bo6035396.html

You’ll notice we always include the publisher’s buy link.  That’s because authors usually receive 40% of the book price from the publisher.  Editors and cover artists usually receive about 5%.  When you buy a book from Amazon, Barnes & Noble or another third-party vendor, they take a hefty cut and the author, editors and cover artists receive their cuts from what is left.  So, if a book costs $5.99 at E-Book Publisher.com and you buy from there, the author will receive about $2.40.  If you buy the book at Amazon, the author will receive about $0.83.

Downloading the file from your computer to your Kindle is as easy as transferring any file from your computer to a USB flash drive.  Plug the USB end of your chord into a USB port on your computer and simply move the file from your “Downloads” box to your Kindle/Documents/Books directory.  I actually download my books using “Save As” to a “Books” file I created on my computer that’s sorted by my publisher, friends, and books “to review,” and then transfer them to my Kindle from there.  That way, if there’s a glitch with my Kindle, the books are on my computer.  Your author will be happy you did when he/she sees his/her royalty statement.

Thanks for visiting Roses &Thorns: RIW & RT