Amy Redwing is devoted to golden retrievers and will go to any length to save one, as her passenger, architect Brian McCarthy, is well aware. He is pressing on a phantom brake pedal, a terrified response to her driving at light speed. But Amy knows there is no time to waste. The call was from a wife, afraid her drunken, abusive husband would kill the family pet, just like he did the last time.

Amy zips, backwards, into the driveway, putting the Expedition in position for a rapid escape.  Brian is made to understand that tonight, he is no mere architect, but Amy’s bodyguard should the drunk, crazed and violent man inside go after Amy. This switch in occupations is a jolt to Brian, but he follows Amy anyway.

At the door, they are greeted by a woman with a bloody lip and a mute four year old girl. On the way to the kitchen, they pass a six year old boy, leaning against the wall, refusing his mother’s touch. The darkness in the hallway caves before the light that bursts from the kitchen as the door is opened. At first, Brian thinks the light is coming from the alert dog sitting on the kitchen floor. Her coat gleams with a golden shine in the kitchen’s light. Her attitude is one of alertness, not of fear, unusual in that violent atmosphere. The dog’s color is the first clue as to her uniqueness.

Uh-oh, the US is in trouble again.  Sixteen Islamic extremist terrorists have invaded eight major American cities with sixteen heat seeking missiles.  Their plan?  Blow up some airplanes in order to deal a major blow to the American economy.  Who is our first line of defense?  A young Bible professor named Dr. Greg Hanson, a rookie FBI agent named Jillian Foster, and a similarly inexperienced Israeli agent named Moshe Zachar.

What follows is a by-the-numbers terrorism themed thriller with Christian tendencies.

The plot itself is fairly interesting, shifting back and forth from the viewpoint of the terrorists to the American (and one Israeli) agents trying to catch up to them.  It is driven forward by the discovery of a hidden messaging system discovered by Greg as he surfs the web looking for pictures of the temple mount for a Sunday School lesson.  However, when he checks the copyright information of the digital image, he discovers a cryptic message.  Meanwhile, in Damascus, Moshe meets with an agent of Mossad who claims that an attack on America is coming.  Greg unravels more clues hidden in pictures, Moshe learns more from his contact, and when they come together they put the pieces of the puzzle together.

Thank you to everyone who submitted entries to win a free copy of Robert Liparulo's latest novel, Deadfall.  The Books team was definitely entertained by your entries, but we could only choose three winners.  Congratulations, Natalie, Brian, and Joey!  You will be receiving your brand-new autographed copies soon!

 

Here are their contest entry e-mails:

 

Natalie:

With the autographced copy of Deadfall I could discover how to save the cheerleader and save the world.

 

American Sophie Grace is caught up in a nightmare. She’d originally journeyed to Spain in search of her fiancé, Michael. She’d found him, but lost him later to a sniper’s bullet--another victim of the Spanish Civil War. After his death, she learns another woman is pregnant with his child, forcing her to battle grief and betrayal.

But war doesn’t stop to allow one woman to grapple with her pain, for it is too busy inflicting pain and terror on anyone it chooses. Yesterday it chose the Spanish town of Guernica. First came the bombs that blew apart the buildings. Next were the firebombs, burning those trapped in the buildings. The last waves were the fighter planes that strafed the villagers fleeing the fires. Sophie had seen it all and intended to use her painting skills to put to canvas what she had seen, in order to let the world know the carnage that had occurred. The only bright spot in this violent world is Philip, a fellow American Sophie has fallen in love with.

In the wake of Amazon's release of Kindle, the new e-reader, a question has been raised: will it lead to easier piracy of books?   What do you think?

Comments (0) 

 

Infuze's Vicki McCollum recently spoke with author Robert Liparulo about his latest book, Deadfall.  They also discussed his upcoming book and film projects.

Vicki McCollum: I enjoyed every minute of Deadfall. It’s an excellent thriller. You’ve said Deadfall’s suspense comes from the question “Will these guys survive?” Describe Deadfall’s premise. How did you develop the idea?

Robert Liparulo: All of my books explore the quality of character: who are you when no one is looking? I believe true character comes out in extreme circumstances. You can say you’d stop a mugging or stand up for what’s right, but would you really do it when the rubber meets the road, when you’re there and you can be hurt or even killed doing what you said you would? I wanted to take a look at a group of friends, all pretty good guys, and put them in a situation where their convictions are tested. Do they have heroic hearts? Or are they really cowards? I also wanted to make to realize that even when life’s been rough on them, they still had something to fight for. I wanted them to see their problems through different eyes, through eyes that had not only seen good times—making their current troubles appear awful—but had also seen their own possible demise, making the problems that had beat them down seem insignificant. I wanted to them to view their troubles in a grander perspective, which we all should do.

J. Patrick Lemarr , author of Fallen and frequent Infuze contributor, has a new project up his sleeve. Along with author and minister D. Gene Strother , he has created an online haven for writers of all ages, TheWriteCrowd.com, a community designed to give fellow writers a place to share and critique their work.

“We realized that, as writers, we are constantly in the process of learning. . .about ourselves and the craft of writing,” Lemarr told Infuze. “Gene and I wanted to create a community where other writers could share their experiences, both failures and triumphs, for the betterment and growth of their peers.”

Featuring regular blogs, podcasts and contests, The Write Crowd community means to inspire creativity, promote growth in the craft of writing and even provide authors with challenges in the form of frequent contests.

Camel Club is a smartly written cloak and dagger tale that weaves together suspense, action, and contemporary issues in a fabulous read. Baldacci not only has a knack for storytelling, but he also speaks eloquently through his characters about terrorism, fear, prejudice, and aggression. Well informed and artfully written, Camel Club is the perfect suspense novel for cold November weekends.

The world is a more dangerous place after 9/11, and no one knows it better than Carter Gray, the United States “intelligence czar” and the President’s right hand man.  Having lost his family on that horrible day, Gray has dedicated his life to crushing terrorism, and he won’t allow anything to stop him: not even personal liberty or privacy. This is a game with deadly consequences and Gray is playing for keeps.

Think back to the first time you saw a beloved book butchered on the screen.  It probably hurt to see the characters you love portrayed differently than you had always imagined them.  When some element of the plot was left out, you may have felt that the movie was lacking something vital.

 

How many times have you heard the complaint that a movie ruined a book, or that the filmmaker's departure from the book ruined the movie?  I’ve known people to walk out of certain adaptations because they just can’t handle the changes.

I’m a lover of books, so I know where people are coming from when they get angry of book-to-movie adaptations.  I’m also a lover of movies, so I tend to get defensive of the writers, directors, and actors who worked so hard to create that adaptation, even if they perceived the source work differently than I did.

It’s taken some time to reconcile these two responses: defending the book and defending the movie.  Now I’ve got a system, though.  I don’t compare the two.

Thriller-extraordinaire Robert Liparulo returns with resounding force in Deadfall.  Though sporting a breakneck pace similar to Germ and Comes A Horseman, Deadfall dispenses with global conspiracies, telling instead a story about friendship, loyalty, and sacrifice.  However, be it a globe-trotting adventure or a deadly game of cat and mouse, as always, hold on for the ride.

Needing respite from worldly burdens and misfortunes, four friends seek escape from their hectic lives into the Canadian Wilderness. There, they hope that stripping down to the barest essentials will help them piece their lives back together. They are airlifted to a remote location, and dropped off to fend for themselves.